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Japan Plans Test of 'New Concorde'

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yes-please-go-faster-please dept.

Steve Nixon writes "Japan's space agency plans to launch an arrow-shaped airplane at twice the speed of sound high over the Australian outback as early as next month in a crucial test of the country's push to develop a supersonic successor to the retired Concorde."

2 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. This is the next step by Crixus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some sort of high altitude Concorde replacement is necessary.

        My choice would be a spaceplane of sorts that takes parabolic trajectories. I've been hearing about plans of a craft of this type that would get you from NY to Tokyo in 45 minutes.

      Burt Rutan WHERE ARE YOU?! :-)

      Sign me up.

    --
    Ignore Alien Orders
    1. Re:This is the next step by dtmos · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You obviously do not fly across the Pacific very often. Realizing that you're flying at 550 mph when technology to fly at 1400 mph was introduced in the 1970s becomes really excruciating after about 10 hours into the flight.

      To the point that you'd pay a significant surcharge to already be at your destination, asleep in your hotel room.

      The high fuel consumption difficulty mentioned in TFA is what kept Concorde off of the Pacific routes; if that is resolved as the Japanese intend, I see a nice market for this plane.