The hydrogen powered A2 hypersonic airplane concept, supported in part by a grant from the EU's Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies project, is in many ways the spiritual successor of the late Concorde.
It differs in two important respects: range and engine efficiency.
the A2 is designed to carry up to 300 passengers from Brussels to Sydney in under 4 hours. The fast airplane will benefit from a 2-mode engine — turbojet and ramjet propulsion systems — that will make it both extremely efficient at slow speeds and able to reach top speeds easily. Used in quick succession, these 2 modes allow the A2 to seamlessly shift from Mach-2.5 to Mach-5.
