Fly to London in 1 Hour?

Two French inventors — representing European aviation manufacturer Airbus — recently filed patents for a next-generation version of the supersonic passenger plane was known as “the Concorde”. They claim their invention can zip from New York to London in an hour making it possible for passengers to make day trips “across the pond”.

Marco Prompolini and Yohann Coraboeuf are listed as the inventors on a patent form filed on July 14, 2015.

The “Son of Concorde” did not inherit its father’s sleek looks, however. Mockups of the proposed jet resemble something out of a sci-fi movie. The craft’s fuselage looks more like a fat cigar with a pair of engines mounted on the belly. The wings sit on top of the plane and sport one engine each.

Whatever the plane lacks in style it gains in speed. The patent document claims the plane can hit Mach 4 — 3,088 mph — via a cruising altitude 12 miles higher than the original Concorde. Mach 4 would make this new plane twice as fast the first supersonic passenger plan, twice as fast as the speed of sound and faster than the retired SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, which owns the Los Angeles-to-New York speed record (64 minutes).

The proposed plane can carry an additional 2-3 tons or the equivalent of 20 passengers. Concorde seated just 100 customers, but offered all First Class service.

The plane also offers potential military applications as well as the patent document explains:

From a power perspective, thanks to the plane’s additional height, it will use a combination of atmospheric oxygen, on-board liquid oxygen (to make up for the thinner atmosphere) and hydrogen. This could very well be the first “mixed propulsion” commercial aircraft using a combination of rockets, scramjets and standard jet propulsion.