Business Insider reports:
XCOR Aerospace wants to change that. Out of a group of outfits looking to bring back travel faster than the speed of sound, it has an especially intriguing idea: flying from one airport to another, via outer space.
It's no pipe dream: XCOR is busy building the Lynx, its suborbital commercial spacecraft, which will take off and land like a conventional plane, but offer a cruising speed of Mach 3.5, 62 miles above the ground.
As it moves toward its first test flights in early 2013, XCOR has built a full-scale mockup of the Lynx, which it brought to last week's International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, in New Mexico.
The Lynx seats only two, and is a stepping stone to a future vehicle that will make point to point space travel a reality.
The design is not final yet, COO Andrew Nelson says. But it's the best look yet at the craft that could make point to point travel in space a reality, and send passengers from New York to Tokyo in an hour and a half.
Interesting, but it will be only for the rich. I don't see this in public use for decades and decades. After all, Boeing has sold out for 40 years or something. In other words, we'll be flying the same planes in 40 years. Quite sad.
ReplyDelete1) It SHOULD only be for the rich - at least, for now. They're the ones that can afford the insurance while things go wrong in a big way.
ReplyDelete2) I'm much more confident in XCOR's vision than yours, "Anonymous"; I believe we'll see it in action within the decade, within two, at most. Probably in Singapore and Hong Kong first, since their governments are much freer than anything you'll find in NYC....
3) Who on Earth is counting on Boeing for anything innovative? Not me, that's for sure. But then, I'm less informed in the industry than "Anonymous" is, likely.... ;)
4) There's that most wicked and mealy-mouthed word in common English use: "we" - it usually means "some other group not actually including myself, but of which I approve" - but that's a gripe for another time....
It would take you longer to get through TSA in NYC than to get to Tokyo!
ReplyDeleteShotgun!
ReplyDelete