Imaginactive has come up with an updated hypersonic jet concept designed to make our world a lot smaller. Named Paradoxal, the aircraft would fly at the edge of space, allowing it to cut trips from Los Angeles to Sydney down to 3 hours, Imaginactive said. Today, that trip takes commercial airlines more than 14 hours to complete. Passengers would sit in one large, theatre-like cabin rather than a narrow tube as they do in today’s commercial airliners.
Paradoxal would be powered by two rotary ramjet engines, which would power the flying wing to around 60,000 feet, reaching speeds of around Mach 3. At that point, liquid oxygen would be injected into the gas port converting the engines to rockets. The rockets would take Paradoxal at supersonic speeds to an altitude of about 40 miles where it would fly a sub-orbital parabolic trajectory at hypersonic speeds.
The leading edge of the flying wing would have “Long Penetration Mode (LPM) nozzles” allowing air to flow out to create a “paradoxal” effect that Imaginactive expects would help boost the speed in cruise and help cool the aircraft during the descent. Paradoxal is expected to require approximately 6,000 feet of runway for takeoffs and landings.
The aircraft was conceptualized as a result of comments and suggestions that followed the release of the Skreemr and Antipode concepts, which Imaginactive released earlier this year.
Imaginactive is a futuristic think tank that conceives vehicles of all shapes and sizes designed for various forms of transportation. The nonprofit organization is led by Charles Bombardier, grandson of the founder of the aviation manufacturing giant Bombardier.
“It’s obvious the world hungers for a quantum leap in faster global passenger transportation, and the Paradoxal aims to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists in dreaming and building it in a not too distant future,” Bombardier said.
