Building the future at Boeing requires looking decades ahead at what could be possible, and innovating now to make it happen. That’s the impetus behind Boeing’s first passenger-carrying hypersonic concept that was debuted at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Atlanta.
The passenger concept could have military or commercial applications; this is just one of several hypersonic vehicle concepts spanning a wide range of potential applications company engineers are studying. Engineers are working companywide to develop enabling technology will position the company for the time when customers and markets are ready to reap the benefits of hypersonic flight.
“We’re excited about the potential of hypersonic technology to connect the world faster than ever before,” said Kevin Bowcutt, senior technical fellow and chief scientist of hypersonics. “
Capable of traveling Mach 5, and travelling at altitudes as high as 95,000 feet a trip from New York to Tokyo could take just two hours, making our already small world that much smaller!
Although Bowcutt can’t speculate when hypersonic flight for global travel will be a reality, he says it’s possible a hypersonic passenger vehicle could be airborne in 20 to 30 years.
