By 2050, the supersonic passenger aircraft SpaceLiner will be able to transport passengers from London to Sydney in just 90 minutes.
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Mr. Martin Sippel, the SpaceLiner project coordinator at the German Aerospace Center, believes that the project could attract private funding within the next decade, although he acknowledges that many challenges remain to be addressed.
Model of a passenger aircraft traveling at 24 times the speed of sound.
Currently, the design model of the supersonic SpaceLiner has been completed, featuring a rocket stage for launch and a separate propulsion stage when the aircraft travels in orbit, capable of carrying 50 passengers across half the globe without reaching outer space altitude.
With the SpaceLiner, a journey between Europe and the U.S. could be shortened to just over 60 minutes. However, passengers will need to pay an estimated several hundred thousand USD for such a flight, comparable to the cost of space tourism.
“SpaceLiner can be considered a second-generation space shuttle, but with a completely different mission. A SpaceLiner crew can conduct 15 flights a day,” Mr. Martin Sippel stated.
The SpaceLiner takes about 8 minutes to reach an altitude of approximately 80 km (within the upper atmosphere of Earth) before returning to Earth at a supersonic speed of over 24,000 km/h. Engineers hope to use liquid oxygen and hydrogen as fuel for the engines.
Engineers are also planning to use composite materials combined with new heat-resistant cooling technology to ensure that the structure of the SpaceLiner can withstand the tremendous heat generated during supersonic flight through the upper atmosphere.
With vertical wing styling similar to a space shuttle, the supersonic SpaceLiner requires a launch site in uninhabited areas, and the flight path is carefully planned to avoid sonic booms that could negatively impact residential areas.