Over the last few years, private aerospace companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic have made humanity’s collective dream of space tourism a reality. But you must still be a billionaire to afford a ticket to the edge of space. However, imagine a world where hypersonic commercial jets fly to different parts of the world while taking a sub-orbital flight, offering passengers an experience of witnessing the world from space. It would be absolutely crazy, right? Spanish designer Oscar Vinals’ portfolio of insane supersonic and hypersonic airplane concepts includes a futuristic rocket-propelled jet that aims to achieve this incredible feat. Called the SXT-A “Iron Speed,” the conceptual aircraft blends space tourism with commercial aviation in a unique package.
Capable of flying at hypersonic speeds, the SXT-A (Space XL Transporter-Advanced) looks like an amalgamation of a fighter jet and a space shuttle. The aircraft has a delta-wing design and features canards upfront like the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet, giving it incredible agility and stability. According to its designer, the hypersonic aircraft features three types of propulsion engines that are deployed in various stages. Up to 80 percent of the aircraft’s structure is taken up by the engines and different fuel tanks feeding the propulsion units. The rest of the 20 percent will be made up of the passenger cabin.
Vinals says the SXT-A will be equipped with a pair of two modern low-bypass turbofan jet engines with afterburning or next-gen superjet engines with Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (ADVENT). The aim is to combine the benefits of turbojet and turbofan engines, giving the aircraft the capability to hit supersonic speeds while maintaining fuel efficiencies. After reaching an altitude of 65,000 feet and hitting a speed of Mach 2, a hybrid rocket engine will take over and propel the aircraft to an altitude of 100km. At the end of this stage, the reusable and retrievable protector cone of the rocket engine will be ejected and parachuted to an uninhabited place on the earth.
In the third phase, the rocket engine will propel the SXT-A to a speed of Mach 4 before a scramjet-ramjet system fires up at the altitude of 120,000ft, accelerating it to a speed of Mach 6. During the descent, the aircraft will return to its jet engines and land like a normal passenger airplane.
The party piece of the aircraft is its space balcony. A pair of glass pods will pop out from the fuselage when the aircraft reaches the edge of space, giving the passengers an unobstructed view of our planet and the darkness of outer space. There are chevron-shaped sections on the nozzles of the propulsion units, which are meant to reduce noise and redirect exhaust gases. The aircraft also has a thermoelectric system capable of converting heat exhaust flow ejected by the jet engines into electricity for powering the systems and sub-systems. Additionally, there are three ejectable “emergency capsules” that can bring back 5 crew members and 15 passengers safely back to earth in the event of an emergency.
