At the end of last week, American company Boom Supersonic flew faster than the speed of sound with its XB-1 supersonic performing aircraft. This is the first now Non-monetary aircraft piloted to break the sound barrier Since Concords retired from service in 2003.
This is the first step in the ambitious target of boom Supersonic airlines carry passengers by 2029,
But what is really supersonic trip? There are good reasons that it is not more common despite publicity.
What is supersonic flight?
The much number is defined as the speed of an aircraft that is divided by the speed that moves through the sound waves air. “Breaking sound barrier” means flying faster than the speed of sound, with more than 1 mach.
Mach number is a significant ratio: as an aircraft flies, it disturbs the air in front of it. These disturbances run at the speed of sound. In supersonic flights, this disturbance aligns to make shock waves around the vehicle.
When people say that you can see a fighter jet before listening to it, they are referring to supersonic flight: Fighter jet can travel at about 2,
The sound from the fighter jet is trapped inside its shock wave; You will not listen to the aircraft until the shock wave goes to your position on the ground.
Supersonic trip attraction
For the causes of efficiency, most passenger jets are slightly slow cruise than sound speed, about 0.8 (it is subconsic flight).
Boom plan to plan An airliner called an overcher Which can fly at 1.7. Flight can reduce the flight time significantly. The company claims a trip From New York to Rome The overcher may take just four hours and 40 minutes instead of eight hours.
Boom is not the only company to work on this elevated target. American firm Spike Aerospace is also developing a supersonic business jet, With tagline “To distribute the world in half time”.
This is a proposal for supersonic passenger travel.
With limited methods, it was already present in the 20th century. However, due to the rules of time, poor fate and physics, it was not released.
Remember Concord?
The design for supersonic airlines began in mid -20th century, and we had supersonic travelers flight until the 1970s.
Was under-composed Russian Tupolev -144 And ConcordFrom 1976 to 2003, a franco-british supersonic airline, run by British Airways and Air France.
Concorded capacity Up to 128 passengers And hovering on Mach 2. It regularly traveled from London to New York In about three hoursFlights were expensive, mainly business people and rich and famous.
Why not take supersonic passenger flight
Concord was designed in the 1960s when it seemed that supersonic passenger transport was going to be the next big thing.
Instead, Boeing 747 Entered commercial service in 1970Cheap, large and efficient airliners such as it comes out of water.
Extremely designed for cruise at supersonic motion, extreme fuel was disabled while unloading and accelerating the Concord. Concord’s expensive, “Gas“Nature was a complaint against it for most of its lifetime.
A frightening 1973 Paris Air Show Crash In the competitive Russian airliner, Tupolev TU -144, one time transferred public perception on supersonic flight security, when many airlines were considering whether to buy a coma or not.
Only 20 Concords were constructed Out of Planned 100It is still disputed whether Concord Ever earned money for the airlines who operated it,
Noise for supersonic flight is a real problem
Remember fighter jets? When an aircraft does a high journey, its shock waves spread to the ground, The cause of a strong disturbance called Sonic BoomIn extreme cases they can shatter the windows and damage the buildings.
In the early 1970s, Sonic Boom’s concerns led to the United States Government Supersonic passenger flight ban on land in AmericaThis hurt the possible market of Concord, so it had only two regular routes, mainly a trans-alantic flights above the water.
Concord also had a very loud aircraft in the take off, as it needed a lot of emphasis to leave the ground.
Future of supersonic journey
A future for supersonic trips depends on solving some or all issues that have faced conflicts.
Quest Project of NASA and Lockheed Martin The aim of showing the sonic boom can be decomposed to the managerial levels. They plan to blow up their X-59 supersonic aircraft in American cities and gauge reactions from citizens.
The purpose of the Quesst is to use the geometry of the X-59, with a long long nose, to spread the sonic boom into a weak “tap”, hopefully supersonic airlines are allowed to travel on the ground in the future.
Spike aerospace’s spike S-512 Diplomat Concept is also aim “Cool” supersonic aircraft With low disruptive sonic boom.
Can Boom cross Concord?
Boom is not planned to fly supersonically on supersonic ground. Their plans to fly on the ground at Mach 0.94, which they claim will allow it to allow 20% fast overland trip Compared to standard passenger airliner, even the colorful color.
They also claim that the design of their engines will ensure that there is an overcher No loud compared to modern subconic airlines when it stops,
In terms of gas gauzing, they plan to use 100% sustainable aviation fuel to reduce emissions and Their carbon footprint,
The Concord was made of aluminum using the design tool available in the 1960s. Modern design methods and modern aerospace materials such as titanium and carbon fibers should also allow overcharits and similar crafts to weigh much less than Concord, improve efficiency.
While the boom is currently getting a lot of interest, With orders from several airlinesConcords had the same commitment before it was available. Most of this incident did not happen,
Additionally, Concord was an analog era product when the idea of ​​flying to London or New York for the day for an important business meeting seemed like an essential thing. In the world of distance work and video meetings, is still a supersonic airlineer in the 2020s?
For now, supersonic airliners such as overchers are likely to remain within the scope of rich and famous, such as Concorde. But with modern technological progress, it will be interesting to see if the supersonic traveler journey once again becomes the reality – or even goes into the mainstream. only time will tell.
(Author: Chris jamesYook The University of Queensland,
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