Boeing unveils hypersonic jet concept design that can fly between India and UK in just over an hour

Boeing unveiled the first look and concept design for a hypersonic passenger jet, which can cover the distance between New York and Tokyo in just a couple of hours that normally takes about 14-hours at present.

On Tuesday, in a conference in Atlanta at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Boeing disclosed and talked about its first concept design for a hypersonic passenger jet. The plane could theoretically travel at Mach Five, or five times the speed of sound (6,174 kmh/3,836 mph).

This means a flight which normally used to take around 8 hours 50 minutes to reach from India to the UK will now be reduced to approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. And an India-US flight will take an estimated 2 hours of flight time as opposed to 14 hours under normal conditions.

We just revealed a new hypersonic vehicle concept @AIAA Aviation – a concept that one day could redefine aviation and connect the world faster than ever before. What do you think? https://t.co/AvsNlc7aLfpic.twitter.com/P5nbxGnlOd

— Dennis A. Muilenburg (@BoeingCEO) June 26, 2018

To everyone’s curiosity of “how this Boeing jet design will be able to reach at this phenomenal speed?”, Kevin Bowcutt, Boeing’s Senior Technical Fellow of Hypersonics said, “the craft uses a specific type of engine known as a ramjet, a staple of many hypersonic vehicle designs. The hypersonic jet’s sharp front-end design will produce minimal drag while the split tail would help to stabilise and steer the vehicle.”

Boeing has earlier produced and flown an airplane that exceeds hypersonic

speed, as the Boeing X-51 Waverider, so building something like this one as a concept is a possibility.

However, the biggest obstacle to hypersonic flight may not be so much about the perfect design but about making the flights affordable.

As President and CEO of AirLease Corp, John Plueger told CNBC, “It’s hard

for me to see, at least in the next 15-20 years, that it’s going to be so cost

competitive that it’s going to compel the airlines to take a stab at it”.