Hypermach, When You Really, Really Have Money To Burn

[Fumesucker]

:wow:

I wonder who the potential clients are for this neat little toy?

http://www.gizmag.com/hypermach-sonicstar-ssbj-concept/18974/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=e00c9b10fc-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email



Anyone who has endured a long-haul flight will know that they’re not the most pleasant way to spend a day – and night. Like EADS with its ZEHST concept plane, UK-based aerospace company HyperMach is looking to ease the pain of long-distance air travel – at least for those that can afford it – with its SonicStar supersonic business jet concept that it unveiled at the Paris Air Show today. With its ability to cruise at Mach 3.5 at an altitude of 60,000 ft. (18.9 km), the SonicStar will be able to fly from New York to Paris in under two hours or from New York to Sydney in just five hours – a journey that currently takes over 20 hours on a commercial airliner.


Featuring electromagnetic drag reduction technology that eliminates any sonic boom over land, the SonicStar is powered by two 54,700 thrust class Supersonic-Magnetic Advanced Generation Jet Electric Turbine (S-MAGJET) engines that HyperMach says is 30 percent more fuel efficient than the Rolls Royce 593 Engine in Concorde. These hybrid supersonic, non-afterburning engines - to be built by HyperMach sister company SonicBlue - operate electrically by generating a large amount of on-board power through the use of superconducting ring generators powered by the high velocity exhaust thrust from the combustor section of the engines.


The majority of the electricity produced is directed forward through a proprietary electric power management system to run a superconducting electric ring motor axial compressor and multi-stage counter rotating, superconducting, dual ring motor electric bypass fans. The bypass fans run independently of the compressor allowing them to run at much lower speeds than the compressor to provide a more efficient RPM for the engine's fan blade design. HyperMach says the electrical independence of the bypass fan from the compressor alone raises the engine's overall efficiency by 70 percent.

The twin fans are also counter rotating to reduce aerodynamic swirl and drag and can be run at optimal rotational speed at any aircraft speed or altitude. This allows the aircraft to boast an impressive a cruise fuel efficiency below 1.05 lbs. of fuel, per lb. of thrust, per hour at Mach 3.5. Jet-A, JP-4 and JP-7 fuel capable, the jet can carry 75,000 lb. of fuel providing a range of 6,000 nautical miles.


<snip>

More at the link.

[sakabatou]

1. The rest of us will just have to stick with being in uncomfy seats

for hours on end.

[GoneOffShore]

4. The Concorde wasn't particularly comfy.

[Fumesucker]

13. You barely had time to warm the seat anyway..

:hi:

[theophilus]

2. Is that from the White Star Line? n/t

[lonestarnot]

3. A twofer, once one deplanes, they sew your skin to the back of your neck

for the procedurally new face lift.

[pa28]

5. Hope it works out.

I've seen quite few really bold aircraft concepts fail because they were designed around a power plant that did not deliver as promised.

As an aviation geek I'd love to see this fly but you learn to be skeptical after a while.

[Fumesucker]

10. It's certainly ambitious..

Of course "state of the art" is technogeekish for "unproven" so I guess we'll see.

[Politicalboi]

6. I bought one of those

But the seat covers have got to go. They clash with the carpet. How embarrassing. The help these days. It just isn't worth the $8.00 an hour I pay. LOL!
Perhaps I can hire Romney. I hear he too is unemployed. P.S The aircraft costs me over $80.00 to fill up, so this is not for beginners. LOL!

[Fumesucker]

9. I hear the Whale Penis Leather is.. err... Big in Russia..

[krispos42]

7. And one day, all this stuff will be standard equipment

Interesting how they decoupled the compressor from the bypass fan by using electric motors.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. This is a very, very, very nontrivial undertaking

Things get very hot at those speeds and altitudes, and materials expand quite a bit. The SR-71, which had similar performance, was a bear to design and put into service.

[Fumesucker]

12. What was computer modeling like in the early sixties?

We were still using black dial phones and mostly watching black and white on three fuzzy over the air channels in 1961.

I've done just enough of similar stuff on the computer to know what an advantage it can be.

It can also cause you to fall flat on your face if your model isn't right to start with.

And yeah, this sucker is non-trivial.

[MannyGoldstein]

15. Good point. However...

as it happens, I manage reasonably large and complex engineering projects for a living. All sorts of things can happen when designing something that's well outside of what's normally built. Just think of all of the problems that Boeing had with its new 787, and that was only a little bit new. One big problem is that Boeing outsourced a lot of the work - using a new team is always a scary proposition relative to a group that's been through it a few times, and this craft will almost certainly have a new team. And there's be a staggering amount of new technology, only once has something anything like this been done, and it was basically two enormous engines and a giant fuel tank with a little space to cram in two space-suited military pilots and some cameras, and it was a nasty flight if memory serves me right. This aircraft new aircraft needs to carry passengers in comfort.

All that being said, it would be a ton of fun to work on something like this, as long as everyone realizes that development will take substantially longer and three times the budget vs. what's being predicted.

[Fumesucker]

16. I've heard that referred to as Cheops' Law of Costs and Schedules..

Cheops was the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khufu

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Link to Paris Air Show live stream

http://www.flightglobal.com/air-shows/paris-air-show/

Google for more links.

[Motown_Johnny]

14. first stage lift vehicle for a small space plane?

just thinking out loud

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Mechanics that maintain this thing better have dual PhD's ...

preferably retired astronauts.