This concept aircraft is called the Drako, and it is a fantasy envisioning of the future of aviation as we know it today.

Its designed for trunk routes, those flown by aircraft like the Boeing 777 or the Airbus A350, between capitals like Paris and New York, or London to Singapore. But these planes will go much faster, clocking in under two hours between North America and Europe, and even quicker over the north pole to asia.

Unlike the planes of today, the hypersonic concept planes engines are decidely different. This aircraft has twin TBCC engines, or known as the Turbine-based Combined Cycles engine concept. This is how it works.

Its all about having the most efficent engine at the right speed. At low speeds, the plane uses a typical turbofan engine. Then when the aircraft is over the ocean, it will switch to its ramjet and move up to and beyond the sound barrier. The turbojet will then shut down until needed. While both engines will share an inlet and outlet for airflow, they will have speratee airflows inside the fuslage. the reverse process will also happen when the aircraft slows down for landing.

This would allow the aircraft to have a speed of up to mach 3 at 95,000 feet, or perhaps as fast as mach 6 where applicable. Because the aircraft moves so fast, its tail is effectively useless at steering at highspeeds - thus the design has two canards at the nose of the plane to allow for sterring at mach 3.

As regards to range, this will greatly depend on fuel. This radical design will require at least some form of hydrocarbons or ecofuel and its still unlikely by 2050 we will have any replacement as its so light and energy dense. For regional travel, aircraft will likely have switched to some form of electrical power, but thats a video for another time.

There are some major roadblocks before we see this technology become more fesible.

Namely the first is high speed legislation - particularlly towards sonic booms. In many countriesin the world, aircraft are not allowed to project a sonic boom while in flight as they go through their airspace - making such a concept impossible. Its possible that if an aircraft flew high enough that the boom would be minimal, but likely these aircraft would be restricted to specific corridors - like over the north pole, or only over oceans.

This aircraft is also missing some serious material science. The aircraft will require totally new material technology, to not only survive the high speeds without breaking up and be cheap enough for airlines to afford. Thus far the only mach 6 aircraft that is development, the SR-72, will cost easily a billion dollars each - double the list price of the Airbus A380. And we didn't even mention the cost to develop the aircraft for Boeing or Airbus. So if an airline wants this aircraft, it will have to be much cheaper.

Cooling will also be an issue for these aircraft. the skin of the aircraft (probably made of titanium) will get as hot as 1,100 degrees F during flight because of air friction, and thus there will have to be an internal cooling system such as liquid nitrogen in thousands of small tubes under the surface of the aircraf, as water just won't cut it. Especially if we want to take this concept from mach 3 up to mach 20 - the fastest aircraft ever made.

That leaves us with the last question, when?

Likely we will see hypersonic aircraft start with military, then become private business jets like gulfstream and boom, before entering the mainstream.

We know that that the military is working on several different ramjet and scramjet designs, that can push an aircraft up and to beyond mach six. One such project is the mysterious Lockheed SR 72, which is under development in the United States as the replacement for its spy plane program - which you can enjoy wawthcing here on the channel.

Other projects include the Boom supersonic Overture - the prototype aircraft was recrently unvailed this year and will likely start flight tests soon. United, Japan airlines and Virgin Atlanatic have all signed up to get these concorde mk2 aircraft.

There is also one other large company competiting in this avenue slowly biding their time - Boeing. Boeing has a long history of working on projects that go shockingly fast, and even at one point they were working on their own american version of the concorde, the Boeing 2707. So far there is no specific timeline for their concept aircraft, only that its 20-30 years away.

Looking over all the research for this video, you can't help but get a sense that this technology is about to usher in an inevitable wave of technological advancement, the future is coming and its coming faster than you think.

BUSINESS INQUIRES: [email protected]