Venus Aerospace Hypersonic Plane Concept

bobbymike said:
https://www.space.com/venus-aerospace-hypersonic-plane-design
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Ummmm WAT:

"Stargazer" was imagined as a next-generation Mach 9 hypersonic drone as well as a Mach 9 crewed aircraft, and both variants are hypothetically capable of taking a quick spin around Earth in about one hour.
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If you are in *orbit* it takes about an hour and a half to go around the Earth, and that's about 2.5 times faster than Mach 9.
 
Ah, so what the actual Flying interview that appears to be the main source document for the Space article says is "It is designed to travel at Mach 9 taking passengers to the other side of the world in one hour."

Which almost works from a simple time and distance calculation (economics be damned)

https://www.flyingmag.com/venus-aerospace-unveils-stargazer/
Edit: And here are the obligatory videos. I respect that the key one with the "get anywhere in the world in one hour" claim is actually just labeled "Hype."

https://vimeo.com/venusaero
 
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Mach 9 = 1235 km*9 = 11115 km. Back luck, half of earth 40 000 km circumference is 20 000 km, and that would take Mach 16 and counting.

Still waiting for a rocketplane with jets and rockets and a 0.80 prop mass fraction, 7 km/s and going suborbital to the other side of the world. But hypersonic is more glamourous - even if a lure, because of the heat barrier.
 
Yeah, but those one-hour claims are usually made looking at air travel routes, not from opposing points along the equator or pole-to-pole. And of course "anywhere" only includes major metropolitan areas in about a half-dozen countries,* because the rest of the world is irrelevant. Even so, they ignore trifling things like accelerating to cruise, slowing down to land, and traffic to and from the airport. But it's within the range of usually accepted puffery, at least, not total absurdity.

* US, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Germany, and maybe the UK if they feel generous.
 
TomS said:
Yeah, but those one-hour claims are usually made looking at air travel routes, not from opposing points along the equator or pole-to-pole. And of course "anywhere" only includes major metropolitan areas in about a half-dozen countries,* because the rest of the world is irrelevant. Even so, they ignore trifling things like accelerating to cruise, slowing down to land, and traffic to and from the airport. But it's within the range of usually accepted puffery, at least, not total absurdity.

* US, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Germany, and maybe the UK if they feel generous.
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The heat and sound barriers, too - they will not go away anytime soon. Except if you go ballistic - suborbital, hence out of the atmosphere.

Hypersonics ? for long range cruise missilles it makes some sense, I would say all that scramjet research since 60 years wasn't for naught. But for orbital launches and passenger transportation ? bollocks.

If you really want a "green" hydrogen airliner; to the other side of the world quickly; and with zero sonic boom under the flight path;
then why not a rocketplane with LH2 turbofans and an hydrolox rocket in the tail ?

9.81*465*ln((450+50)/(90+50))+1100 = 6907 m/s, with a payload of 50 mt and a mass fraction of 0.80 (because, 1-(90/450) = 0.80)

At 6900 m/s you can hop 12000 km ballistically, same range as the stupid thing above thread. This with no sonic boom nor heat barrier - they are mostly gone and buried because you leap above the atmosphere in merely 30 minutes. Instead of running into the thick of the heat barrier at Mach 5 or Mach 9 for 1 hour or more, with the airframe heating at 800°C and complicated engines and air intakes.

I would like to see a "suborbital transportation" craze rather than that stupid "hypersonic transportation" craziness.
 
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What sort of sonic boom do you create when diving vertically?
 
My point exactly. Make no mistake, the ascending and descending Space Shuttle produced sonic booms; but only briefly and locally (Cape Canaveral area). Not along its entire flight path above the planet (well it was in orbit but you get the point: no atmosphere, no sonic boom).
 
Archibald said:
bollocks.
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Well said, and by the way, congratulations you’ve mastered the English language…. Another of my French friends, and indeed super user of this word, calls it the Swiss Army knife word of the English language.

How did they raise 55m$?
What’s their unique (maybe Harry Potter like) technology?
As for this being suitable for Pax what must the acceleration and deceleration phases feel like?
 

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