Hypersonic Flight: Europe to Australia in 5 hrs with Liquid Hydrogen

[EnumaElish]

Hypersonic jet could reach Australia in under five hours

Tue Feb 5, 7:05 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - British engineers unveiled plans Tuesday for a hypersonic jet which could fly from Europe to Australia in less than five hours.

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It operates on liquid hydrogen, which is more ecologically friendly as it gives off water and nitrous oxide instead of carbon emissions.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080205/ts_afp/britaintechnologyaustraliaeuaviationplane_080205120505

Is this same as scramjet technology, or is it a new technology?

 

[binzing]

Why's it give off nitrous oxide?

 

[russ_watters]

Hydrogen isn't natural in molecular form, so it needs to be generated. That requires energy, so unless they use something like nuclear power to generate the hydrogen, it will most certainly not be ecologically friendly. Also, hypersonic flight itself is extremely inefficient.

Tree hugging hippie crap aside, hypersonic flight is very cool. Their website shows a hybrid jet/rocket engine: http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/sabre.html

Unfortunately, though, what we have here is neither a real company nor a real project. It's just press for the purpose of generating revenue.