Revolutionary hypersonic passenger jet ‘Halcyon’ will go five times over speed of sound

This is the Hermeus Halcyon, a proposed hypersonic jet concept that would be capable of traveling from New York to Paris in 90 minutes.

Precisely because it’s hypersonic, it means it would (theoretically) be able to travel 5 times faster than any commercial jet available today.

It sounds like the stuff of sci-fi movies, but there are a couple of things we should point out.

READ MORE: Hydrogen-powered jet concept could fly from the UK to the US without refueling

The first thing we should point out is that this isn’t a design exercise sketched by an aviation enthusiast, such as the Sky OV or the Magnetar, for example.

This is different kind of prototype, because it is designed by a start-up company, Hermeus, that’s already trying to turn this concept into reality.

Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, Hermeus is conducting tests, building components, and – as they explained on their YouTube channel – they’ve apparently also teamed up with the US Air Force.

So far they’ve unveiled four concepts, and Hermeus Halcyon is their flagship product.

The second thing we should point out is that Hermeus has a very clear objective in mind.

“Hypersonic travel has the potential to add more than $4 trillion of global GDP growth per year by radically accelerating the speed of commerce and cultural exchange”, Hermeus wrote in a statement published on its website.

That’s a good point, traveling from New York to Paris in 90 minutes instead of seven or eight hours would certainly give the world economy a huge boost.

The thing is, in order to get to that point, we’d probably have to invest tens if not hundreds of billions to build a hypersonic jet that can travel at Mach 5.

So their goal is to accelerate the transition towards faster air travel, but not necessarily for everyone.

That’s because Hermeus says the Halcyon would fly at over 90,000 feet, for 4,600+ miles, att 3,850 mph – or Mach 5… but with only 20 passengers on board.

So it would essentially be a hypersonic private jet, sort of like the one we designed.