Innovation in aerodynamic design is constantly
making great strides, from automobiles, bicycles, and wind turbines, to
rockets and space vehicles. Charles Bombardier, a Canadian industrial
designer who gave us the concept of the Skreemr, a supersonic plane
capable of traveling at Mach 10, has come through with a more incredible
idea.
But instead of going a mere Mach 10 and taking 30 minutes between New York and London, as
the Skreemr
was supposed to travel, Bombardier has come up with a totally new
concept in aerodynamic design in collaboration with Lunatic Koncepts
founder Abhishek Roy.
Called the Skreemr, the aircraft
incorporates scramjet technology, allowing for engine combustion to be
achieved via air coming in at high speeds. Getting the plane to travel
at that great rate of movement is aided by a launch involving a magnetic
railgun system.
Geobeats News
Bombardier's next-concept jet,
the Antipode
is a design engineer's dream. Picture this: a 10-passenger private jet
that takes off using rocket boosters that detach at an altitude of 12
km, and then fires its supersonic engines to hit speeds of Mach 20
(20,000 km/h), getting you from New York to London in 11 minutes.
This new concept jet comes just a few months after the Skreemr, a
four-wing scramjet capable of carrying 75 passengers at about Mach 10
was introduced. That is about five-times the speed of a Concorde, by the
way. But the scramjet design is something even NASA is still working to
develop, and the Skreemr has remained a concept that is still on the
drawing board.
So how will the Antipode work?
"I wanted to create an aircraft concept capable of reaching its antipode
-- or the diametrical opposite -- as fast as possible," Bombardier told
Forbes. Did that statement lose anyone?
Charles Bombardier, Canadian industrial designer and entrepreneur
Paul Alexander
The Antipode's wings would be fitted with rocket boosters that would get
the plane up to 40,000 feet and Mach 5, and like the Skreemr, it would
be powered by a scramjet engine. A
scramjet engine,
or supersonic combustion ramjet uses oxygen from the atmosphere passing
through the vehicle, instead of using liquid oxygen tanks on board. The
basic idea behind a scramjet is that the aircraft can be lighter,
smaller and faster without the tanks of liquid oxygen.
Feasibility issues to overcome
With the Skreemr concept, the design met with two big problems. One was
heat, and the other was sonic booms. Objects traveling at Mach 5 can
reach temperatures of 980 C (1800 F), and there really aren't that many
materials yet that can withstand that type of heat.
And there are many of us that remember the sonic booms from jets years
ago flying over residential areas. Going at the speed, the Skreemr and
Antipode would be capable of going almost guarantees sonic booms. But
Bombardier believes he has found a solution to both the heat and sonic
booms.
Joseph Hazeltine, an engineer at Wyle, which provides technical support
to both NASA and the U.S. Department of Defence contacted Bombardier
after the Skreemr concept was published online. Hazeltine had come up
with an interesting solution.
Conceptualized image of Antipode.
Tomo News
The long penetration mode or LPM
LPM is an
aerodynamic technique
that uses a nozzle on an aircraft's nose to suck in air and cool the
aircraft's surface down. The technique will also muffle some of the
noise when the aircraft breaks the sound barrier. All in all, the
concept is very impressive, even though it may be decades away from
becoming reality. But it is a lot of fun to think about, isn't it?
Charles Bombardier is a Canadian industrial designer and inventor. He
began publishing his concept designs online in 2013 and has created
designs for cars, motorcycles, planes, and boats. Interestingly, he does
not patent his work, relying instead on feedback and input from others
in ways to improve his designs.
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