Space Plane to Offer 2 Hour Flight around the World

secretsather writes "Two hour flights to the other side of the world may seem like a scene from a science fiction movie; but the technology is in place, and a plane that can do just that is currently in development. While it looks like a scene from a flight simulator, the Astrox space plane is the real deal, and the Astrox Corporation says it could revolutionize the transportation industry. Traveling as fast as Mach 25 with at least 30 minutes of space shuttle-like views while in orbit is the highlight of this plane, and The Astrox Corporation, along with their partners, are claiming to have finally overcome their largest problem, mixing fuel."

Comments

Jetlag was bad? Watch out for ScramJet lag

[rednip]

Sure the fight may last only 2 hours, but after spending much of that time in heavy acceleration, I wonder how long it would take to recover. Also, wouldn't passengers need to be in really good health to endure such a journey, and would they need to wear flight suits like fighter pilots just to keep from blacking out? I suspect that regular passenger use may be out of the question if these problems aren't solved by altitude/weightlessness.

Wikipedia's entry for Scramjet mentions

Scram jets might be able to accelerate from approximately Mach 5-7 to around somewhere between half of orbital velocity and orbital velocity (X-30 research suggested that Mach 17 might be the limit compared to an orbital speed of Mach 25, and other studies put the upper speed limit for a pure scram jet engine between Mach 10 and 25, depending on the assumptions made

As the company claims a top speed of Mach 25, could this be the 'cheap' way to get to low Earth orbit?

Yeah right

[Reality Master 101]

Scramjets are the "fusion" of aircraft research. Always 10-20 years away. I'll believe it when I see something flying.

It would still take 6 hours to get there

[Anonymous Coward]

1/2 hour - drive to space-port
2.0 hours - security/checkin
1/2 hours - sit on space-plane tarmac
2.0 hours - flight
1/2 hour - baggage claim
1/2 hour - drive from space-port

Bloatware

[Toby The Economist]

Prior 9/11; two hours pre-flight, eight hours in flight, half hour at the other end : 10.5 hours.

Post 9/11; four hours pre-flight, eight hours in flight, one hour at the other end : 13 hours

Hyperdrive; four hours pre-flight, two hours in flight, one hour at the other end : 7 hours.

Pre-flight security bloatware, god-dammit. I upgrade my plane so it's four times faster and I'm still only 50% better off than I was originally!

Heinlein's Friday

[MikeMc]

You know, every day, the world seems more and more like Heinlein's novel "Friday" -- massively interlocked superconglomerate corporations owning all that is ownable, balkanization of territories, a global computer network containing all recorded movies, music and information, and now this, something akin to the superballistic planes.

I'm actually interested to see if the rough-and-tumble in the boardroom starts to spill out into the streets, a proxy war fought by mercenaries, hurting corporations where they're most vulnerable -- the bank account and their reputations.

To me, it's absolutely uncanny how dead-on he was about the changes to society the future would bring. The only thing I'd disagree about with his insight is how long it would take for things to fall apart -- IMHO he was an optimist.

Re:Heinlein's Friday

[flyingfsck]

Hmm well, 150 years ago, the Hudson Bay Company owned most of North America and the East African Trade Company owned millions of people...

I tend to think that however bad, the situation today is a whole lot better.