Facts and figures

Will we be able to fly faster during the 21st century than we could by the end of the 20th? The Future High-Altitude High Speed Transport 20XX project aims to establish sound technological foundations for the introduction of advanced concepts in suborbital high-speed transportation.

1.1 Project ObjectivesThe ‘Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport 20XX’ (FAST20XX) project aims at providing a sound technological foundation for the industrial introduction of suborbital transportation in the medium term (5-10 years) and in the longer term (second part of this century), defining the most critical RTD associated building blocks to achieve this goal. Note that it is not the development of vehicles which is planned but the mastering of technologies required for such development should the decision be made in Europe. In addition, the corresponding required critical non-technical building blocks are identified. The identified critical technologies have been investigated in depth by developing and/or applying dedicated analytical, numerical and experimental tools, while the legal/regulatory issues have been discussed with government or international authorities as necessary. The underlying philosophy is to use realistic as well as futuristic concepts as guide lines for technology developments and for initiating answers to non-technical issues. The project objectives can be broken down as follows:

FAST20XX is a collaboratiove project for small or medium scale focused research projects through the 7th Framework under Theme 7: Transport.