The technological challenge of the day is the hypersonic aircraft, in other words an aircraft even faster than the Concorde. And a clean plane since it will run on hydrogen.
The technological challenge is Paris-New York in 90 minutes, at more than 6,000 km/h: three times faster than Concorde, six times faster than an airliner. And this plane is not a fantasy. The Chinese already have a hypersonic hover vehicle. Code name: WU-14. It is a military vehicle, without passengers, and it has already been four years since it officially entered service.
Elsewhere, several civilian projects, this time intended for passenger transport, are underway: Hermeus and Venus Aerospace in the United States, Hypersonics in Australia and Destinus in Europe, which has been very visible for a month. We saw a first prototype at Viva Tech in mid-June. We found him a few days later, this time at the Paris Air and Space Show.
Imagine a device halfway between a fighter plane and the American space shuttle. The underside is almost flat, the wings are very short, in line with the fuselage. Add two 90° fins at the back.
Half fighter jet, half space shuttle, 2031 goal
Two versions of Destinus are planned: the first, Destinus S, will correspond to the small model: 25-30 passengers maximum. The second version, Destinus L, will have a capacity equivalent to an Airbus A340-400, or just over 300 passengers. It can reach any airport in the world.
The objective is 2031 if all goes well, for the first commercial flight and therefore in 8 years. Until then, there is still a lot of work and testing to be done for Destinus whose parent company is in Switzerland with offices in Paris, Toulouse, Madrid, Munich and the Netherlands.
The development goes through five prototypes numbered from 1 to 5 which double in size each time. To date, the first two have flown with hydrogen gas. The next step, in July 2024, will be the switch to Destinus 3 and liquid hydrogen for post-combustion, with test flights from the former naval air base of Rochefort, in Charente-Maritime: the hydrogen that should replace kerosene gradually until Destinus 5, hopefully at the end of the decade. Last “detail”: the flight will be fully automated, so there will be no pilot on the plane!