Destinus jet plane to fly from New York to Paris in 90 minutes

The flight would ideally take just 90 minutes to travel from New York to Paris. Photo / Google Maps

A European company is developing a hypersonic passenger aircraft that, it claims, will be able to fly from New York to Paris in just 90 minutes.

If successful, it wouldn’t be the first aircraft determined to make shorten the trip from the big apple to the city of love.

In the early 2000s, Air France’s Concord made the journey in three hours. However, safety concerns, issues with noise near residential areas and high fuel usage prompted it to retire the service in 2003.

Destinus claims it won’t just replace Concord, but halve the travel time.

Martina Löfqvist, Destinus VP of Business Development talking about our work on #hydrogen- powered hypersonic airplane at @VivaTech in Paris. Come and meet our team and see the prototype at Hall 1, booth D52. #VivaTech pic.twitter.com/TuWA9y0GjA

— Destinus (@destinusaero) June 16, 2023

The start-up shared its plans during the Paris Air Show last week.

The company has plans for a 25-person plane called Destinus S, which would be a “‘business jet” and cruise at 108,000ft at Mach five, which is approximately five times the speed of sound.

The other model, Destinus L, would be a much larger aircraft and carry 300 - 400 people.

Unfortunately, having a cocktail in New York and dinner in Paris is still a few years away, if plans are successful. The business anticipates delivering the Destinus S in 2032-3025, and the Destinus L in the 2040s.

The aircraft will get from subsonic to hypersonic speed through the use of special fuel and engines.

A Turbo (which is a forced induction device) will be paired with an afterburner (an additional combustion component used on some jet engines) to get the aircraft to supersonic speed. Then, the use of a ramjet will get it to hypersonic speed.

Both aircraft will use liquid hydrogen fuel, which is said to prevent the aircraft from overheating during flight.

As one can imagine, the project is far from cheap. Destinus is currently providing services to the energy sector in order to fund its project.

However, the startup’s senior business development manager, Martina Löfqvist, said hydrogen-powered aircraft will be the future for major airlines and airports.

“We’ve been speaking with a lot of airlines and airports who also support the notion that hydrogen will be the future of aviation,” she said at the Paris Air show last week.