We all know Concorde as the World’s only Supersonic airliner that was grounded after several high-profile crashes and extreme noise pollution. A supersonic aircraft not only provides elusive and short flight durations, but it is also a symbol of progressiveness and stature of an aircraft manufacturer. The fact that Boeing and AirBus both have failed to make a successor to Concorde as of yet has highlighted how difficult it is actual to make such a plane and ghost patents from each company also tell us a story of pre-emptive patent strategy. So, Airbus managed to get hold of a new patent that can potentially be a faster and more agile plane than Concorde itself. Airbus SAS, the manufacturing arm of Airbus wants to build this plane as well.
In July this year, Airbus successfully got a patent of a supersonic aircraft that could travel from London to New York in just one hour. Interestingly enough, Airbus got to change their initial design before accepting a final one for patenting. We don’t know for sure why Airbus did that, but maybe its down to the fact that the initial design wasn’t in a great working shape for the aircraft company to pursue and so they went for practicality rather than dazzling the press with yet another high-end patent that is hardly likely to work. Here is the initial design:
The second one is seen here hand-drawn. Just by looking at these two, we can see the clear differences like the wings and the positioning of the engines. It has been mentioned in the patent document as:
“A space aircraft capable of taking off from the ground in the usual manner, reaching an altitude of at least a hundred kilometres, flying at a trans-sonic or even supersonic speed, and then landing in the usual manner of an aircraft.”
The video below from Patent Yogi that analyzes patents gives more insight into the futuristic design: