Airbus has been granted a U.S. patent for an airplane that could fly commercial passengers at speeds up to Mach 4.5, according to various news reports this week. The plans show the hydrogen-fueled airplane would take off vertically, propelled by turbojets, then a rocket engine and wing-mounted ramjets would propel the aircraft as high as 100,000 feet. The aircraft then would transition to level flight. That flight profile would minimize the sonic boom impact on the surface, according to Airbus. “In the case of civil applications, the market envisaged is principally that of business travel and VIP passengers, who require transcontinental return journeys within one day,” according to the patent documents.
The aircraft also could be developed for military as well as civilian use, Airbus said. The aircraft could make the trip from Paris to Tokyo, which takes 12 hours today, in under three hours. The patent doesn’t mean the aircraft is actually on the drawing boards, however. “Airbus Group and its divisions apply for hundreds of patents every year in order to protect intellectual property,” an Airbus spokesman told Reuters in an email. “These patents are often based on R&D concepts and ideas in a very nascent stage of conceptualisation, and not every patent progresses to becoming a fully realised technology or product.”
