Bombardier says the Antipode would be powered by liquid oxygen or kerosene rockets and in theory that the jet can carry 10 people for a distance of up to 20,000 km in less than an hour. ‘I wanted to create an aircraft concept capable of reaching its antipode—or diametrical opposite—as fast as possible,’ Bombardier told Forbes. Bombardier worked on the Antipode design in collaboration with Abhishek Roy, the founder of Lunatic Koncepts, a design lab based in India. This particular new-age jet Antipode is designed to have wing-mounted boosters that provide enough thrust to propel the aircraft to an altitude of 40,000 feet at Mach 5 before detaching from the accelerators. After separation, a supersonic combustion ramjet engine kicks in, pushing the plane to its top speed of Mach 24. The airplane also incorporates a special design feature that enables it to withstand and dissipate the intense heat that is inherent to such extreme speeds: a nozzle at the front of the airplane enables a phenomenon called Long Penetration Mode (LPM,) which reduces heat build-up on the surface of the airplane while countering the build-up of shockwaves as it accelerates past the sound barrier. The plane’s wings would have enough lift to glide and land on a 6,000 foot runway. Last year, the Canadian engineer designed the Skreemr, a four-winged scramjet that he claimed could carry 75 passengers at speeds of up to Mach 10. One Mach averages 1195km/hour, a speed equal to that of sound. An aircraft flying at Mach 2 is flying at twice the speed of sound, in the air. ‘The Antipode could be used as business or military aircraft to transport two highly ranked officials across the globe (up to 20,000 km) in less than an hour,’ Bombardier told DailyMail.com. ‘I think the cost will be at least over $150 million per plane and it could become a reality if there is a demand. But first, further research needs to be conducted.’ Interestingly, the images of the Antipode concept have been created by Roy, who has also created the renderings for the Subrocket car and the Korbiyor autonomous electric hearse concept.
