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A Switzerland-based start-up company has placed job advertisements on Linkedin.com for more staff to work on its project to revolutionise air travel with a hyperplane, a hybrid between an aircraft and a rocket that should reach Australia from Europe in 90 minutes at 15 times the speed of sound.
The company is called Destinus and its aircraft will use a cryogenic hydrogen rocket engine to accelerate to hypersonic velocity. In kilometres per hour, 15 times the speed of sound is over 18,000 km/h – and as a hydrogen burner it should be comparatively eco-friendly.
Destinus was founded in March last year and is reported to employ 50 engineers, with offices and facilities in Munich, Madrid, and Toulouse as well as Canton Vaud, Switzerland.
It is currently seeking staff for Europe-based positions, ranging from an office manager to various types of specialised engineers, according to job ads placed on the Linkedin website here.
There are no vacancies for travel agents or reservations staff, as the planes will carry only cargo – though anything as revolutionary as the hyperplane could be expected rapidly to be adapted for passenger travel.
Destinus believes that “in the future, distance shouldn’t matter at all”. The vehicles will be green (hydrogen powered) and initial customers are likely to be supply-chain companies.
A smaller prototype the size of a car is reported already to have flown and another one the size of a bus is being prepared for take-off later this year. The first commercial intercontinental flights with a payload of one tonne are planned for 2025. The final iteration – a hyperplane capable of transporting 100 tonnes at many times the speed of sound – is due to take to the sky in 2029.
Investors are reported to have recently poured $29 million into Destinus SA in an initial seed funding round.
Company founder Mikhail Kokorich hails from Siberia near the Mongolian border. A serial entrepreneur, he emigrated to the US in 2014 and founded space-related companies in California before leaving the US for Europe in 2021.
The plan envisages the hyperplane cruising in the mesosphere at an altitude of 60 kilometres above the earth’s surface.
There’s more information on the company’s website https://destinus.ch/ and a brief outline of its plans below. It’s a reminder that the future holds some startling developments.

Written by Peter Needham