HyperSoar

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The HyperSoar is a hypersonic aircraft concept designed by Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory engineer Preston Carter. It was to be capable of flying at around Mach 12 (9200 MPH 14700 km/h), allowing it to transit between any two points on the globe in under two hours. The HyperSoar is
predicted to be a passenger plane capable of skipping outside the atmosphere to prevent it from overheating
and burning up in the atmosphere. A trip from Chicago to Tokyo would take 18 skips or 72 minutes to reach
(10,123 kilometers distance apart). To travel from Los Angeles to New York (3,978 kilometers) would involve
about 5 skips and take 35 minutes. (Both flights require a total of about 2,450 kilometers and 27 minutes for
take off and landing. So this means that it would take 8 minutes in the air for LA to NY and 45 for Chicago to
Tokyo). According to plans, it would use hydrocarbon-based engines instead of hydrogen-based ones outside
the atmosphere, as well as experimental jet engine technology inside it. The project was expected to begin
testing by 2010.

[edit]Status
Although reports continued to reference the press releases (in 1998 and repeated in 2000), no development in
the project was forthcoming. Although it presaged 2004's NASA X-43 and the current X-51 Waveriderscramjet
aircraft, the Hypersoar was merely a design concept. As of 2010, Lawrence Livermore (still funded primary by
the DOE) was not actively engaged in any hypersonic vehicle design.