From New York to London in a record three hours! A new supersonic jet offers incredible travel convenience by massively cutting down travel time, making cities half the world away almost as close as stops on a subway line.
The Spike Aerospace S-512 Supersonic jet first, introduced to the world in 2013, has undergone plenty of modifications from its initial model with the latest upgrades setting it on sight to be the fastest commercial beast in the sky.
Spike Aerospace, a Boston based company, announced that it would be revamping the S-512 to give it a new ground breaking top speed of 1370 mph. That’s a whopping 1.8 times the speed of sound, something not seen in the skies since the fuel-hungry Concorde retired from passenger service in 2003.
The fastest Boeing 747 commercial plane can tear through the air at a top speed of 700 mph, a meager half of the new S-512’s flight capabilities. And while business jets like the Gulfstream G-650 go within a hair of the speed of sound, the jet would be the first new commercial plane to rival the military’s F-18 Hornet, which has a similar top speed.
The earth shattering speed of the supersonic jet is guaranteed to have its passengers travel from New York City to London, U.K. in three hours. Alternatively, one could choose to fly to Dubai, from Paris, “for shopping and entertainment and back home in time for dinner,” a statement from the company said. Say goodbye to jet lag, long boring muscle stiffening flights. The world just got a lot smaller.
Anutosh Moitra, Spike Aerospace’s senior engineer attributed the plane’s death defying speed to its new delta wings. Moitra said, “The new delta wing of the S-512 delivers high aerodynamic efficiency and improved flight performance in both low-speed flight and supersonic cruise.”
The shape of the delta wings and the jet’s tail help reduce drag, which is responsible for slowing the plane down. The new tail is also much lighter, boosting the plane’s speed.
Of course the convenience of time carries a cost. The supersonic jet is set to retail at between $60 million to $80 million. No meager sum by any regard yet just twenty percent more than a high end business jet, assuming the project comes in on budget.
Should the S-512 be produced, it is sure to be the future of aviation. Yet the hurdle is large as the company has thus far not announced a firm timeline for construction, nor has it signed up an always crucial launch customer.
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