February 5, 2008 1:34 PM PST
The A2 would be a very big plane--roughly twice as long as the new Airbus A380 jumbo jet, though with about half the wingspan. Reaction Engines reckons on its Web site that the A2 would seat 300 passengers, "thought to be the minimum to achieve a competitive seat/mile cost."
Flight time from Brussels to Sydney would be about 4.6 hours, compared with the current 22. Along the way, the aircraft would achieve sustained Mach 5 flight (around 3,900 miles per hour), or five times the speed of sound, for several hours, the company says. The engine is also intended to deliver good subsonic performance--and just "moderate takeoff noise."
Photo by Reaction Engines
Caption by
Jonathan Skillings
