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    Boeing Considering Hypersonic Jet: LA to Tokyo in 3hrs

    When British Airways and Air France retired the Concorde in 2003, it looked like we might never see commercial supersonic speeds again. Boeing is thinking differently, and the company is planning to put a hypersonic jet in the skies in the coming decades. The Washington-based firm released the first sketch of an early prototype during a conference in Atlanta.

     

    The rendering shows a slim, triangular aircraft with a sharp nose and a pair of fins on the tail. It’s not unlike the Concorde when it comes to design but it’s considerably faster. A couple of reports say the yet-unnamed plane will be able to cruise at Mach 5, which corresponds to approximately 3,900 mph. That’s over seven times the average cruising speed of a commercial jet.
    Cruising at Mach 5 would cut down the time it takes to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo to about three hours. Flying from New York to London would take little more than two hours. Boeing stresses the rendering shows a concept, not an actual production plane, so don’t expect to fly this sucker anytime soon.Boeing refuses to speculate precisely when the jet will fly, but Kevin Bowcutt, Boeing’s chief scientist of hypersonics, says it could happen in the next 20 to 30 years. Reaching such high speeds requires putting a tremendous amount of time and effort into developing lightweight materials strong enough to withstand hypersonic speed and new propulsion technologies.Boeing Hypersonic JetWhile Airbus won’t join the race, Boeing’s forward-looking hypersonic jet will face competition from a number of companies when it reaches the market. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are already developing a hypersonic jet. It’s for the nation’s military, but engineers haven’t ruled out making a commercial variant to carry passengers around the globe.

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    David Novak
    David Novakhttps://www.gadgetgram.com
    For the last 20 years, David Novak has appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV around the world, reviewing the latest in consumer technology. His byline has appeared in Popular Science, PC Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Electronic House Magazine, GQ, Men’s Journal, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Forbes Technology, Readers Digest, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Glamour Magazine, T3 Technology Magazine, Stuff Magazine, Maxim Magazine, Wired Magazine, Laptop Magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, Indiana Business Journal, Better Homes and Garden, CNET, Engadget, InfoWorld, Information Week, Yahoo Technology and Mobile Magazine. He has also made radio appearances on the The Mark Levin Radio Show, The Laura Ingraham Talk Show, Bob & Tom Show, and the Paul Harvey RadioShow. He’s also made TV appearances on The Today Show and The CBS Morning Show. His nationally syndicated newspaper column called the GadgetGUY, appears in over 100 newspapers around the world each week, where Novak enjoys over 3 million in readership. David is also a contributing writer fro Men’s Journal, GQ, Popular Mechanics, T3 Magazine and Electronic House here in the U.S.

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