German researchers revive hypersonic SpaceLiner concept

Ars Technica : The SpaceLiner was conceived in 2012 as a 50-passenger hypersonic airliner. Powered by a rocket, it would be able to fly between Europe and Australia in less than 90 minutes. Now, a team led by Martin Sippel of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has revitalized the idea and has developed a roadmap to realize an operational vessel within 20 years. The new plan increases the passenger capacity to 100 and also calls for the vehicle to be used for delivering satellites and other payloads to space. Although the passenger service would only be used by a small number of people, the cost per engine would be relatively low because of the number of engines that would need to be produced. Following a vertical launch, the booster stage would be captured on descent, while the main vehicle would glide to its destination at a speed of 6.9 km/s before landing like an airplane. Sippel and his team estimate that development of a prototype would cost as much as $33 billion.