charles Bombardier, the man behind the concept aircraft Skreemr which could travel at Mach 10, has now unveiled the Antipode, a hypersonic jet that he claims will cover the distance between London and New York in a mind-boggling 11 minutes.
Bombardier, who is affiliated with the Canadian aircraft company Bombardier Inc, says the Antipode can reach Mach 24, twice the speed of the Skreemr and 12 times faster than the Concorde. In theory, he claims it can carry 10 people for a distance of up to 20,000km in less than an hour.
Last year, the Canadian engineer designed the Skreemr, a four-winged scramjet that he claimed could carry 75 passengers at speeds of up to Mach 10.
One Mach averages 1195km/hour, a speed equal to that of sound. An aircraft flying at Mach 2 is flying at twice the speed of sound, in the air.
Bombardier says the Antipode can be an ideal business or military aircraft to fly senior officers anywhere in the world in almost no time.
Antipode, he says, will be an aircraft with rocket boosters attached to its wings, which would propel the plane to 40,000 feet and help it reach Mach 5, before they separate and fly back to base.
After that, the supersonic combustion engine will be ignited, shooting the jet up to a speed of Mach 24.
