New Jet revives talk of commercial supersonic travel | Shareable Stories

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New Jet revives talk of commercial supersonic travel | Shareable Stories

An aircraft developed by Boom Supersonic became the first independently funded U.S. jet to break the sound barrier this week.

The XB-1 aircraft accelerated to Mach 1.05 at about 35,000 feet during a test flight in the same Mojave Desert airspace in California where Charles “Chuck” Yeager, a World War II ace fighter pilot who became a military test pilot after the war, was the first person to break the sound barrier in 1947.







Obit Chuck Yeager

Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1947, poses Sept. 4, 1985, at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in front of the rocket-powered Bell X-IE plane that he flew.




Tuesday’s flight took place above a crowd of delighted onlookers as the company works to revive supersonic passenger travel, which died with the grounding of the Anglo-French Concorde more than two decades ago.

“XB-1’s supersonic flight demonstrates that the technology for passenger supersonic flight has arrived,” Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl said in a statement. “A small band of talented and dedicated engineers has accomplished what previously took governments and billions of dollars.”

Here’s a look at the flight and the history of supersonic travel:

Why was the flight significant?

It was a step toward reviving supersonic commercial travel, which has been on hiatus since the Concorde jet was grounded more than 20 years ago.

Several companies are working to come up with new supersonic jets that would be more fuel efficient — and create fewer climate-changing emissions — than the Concorde.

Boom Supersonic has contracts with at least two airlines to buy the commercial airliners once they are developed.







Supersonic Flight Mojave Desert

The Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 aircraft breaks the sound barrier, Mach 1, during a Jan. 28 test flight over the Mohave Desert, Calif.




What aircraft was used?

The aircraft, which flew for the first time in March, is made almost completely from lightweight carbon fiber. It uses an augmented reality vision system to help with landing, since its long nose and high-angle approach can make it difficult for pilots to see.

Boom, based in Denver, plans to focus next on using the technology to build its Overture commercial airliner, which the company says could carry as many as 80 passengers while traveling faster than the speed of sound — about twice the speed of today’s subsonic airliners. The jets would be built in North Carolina.

The company said the engine it’s developing for the Overture will have 35,000 pounds of thrust and is designed to run on sustainable aviation fuel.

“The future of aviation is here and now,” Amy Marino Spowart, president and CEO of the National Aeronautic Association, said in a statement. “Not only is there hope for faster and better commercial flight, but Boom proves that it can be done sustainably.”

NASA is ready to launch a jet faster than the speed of sound but without the noise. The X-59 is designed to reach speeds of over 900 mph.



What’s the future of supersonic travel?

American Airlines and United Airlines pledged to buy jets from Boom Supersonic. Boom said last year it had orders and pre-orders for 130 aircraft.

Those commercial flights could be limited to ocean crossings or would have to slow down over land to limit damage from sonic booms, which can rattle buildings.

As a supersonic plane speeds through the air, it pushes molecules aside with great force, forming a shock wave “much like a boat creates a wake in water,” according to NASA.

NASA is looking to develop a craft with a softer boom, and Boeing also is working on a prototype for supersonic commercial travel.

Any new such service likely will face the same hurdles as the Concorde, which flew over the Atlantic and was barred from many overland routes because of the sonic booms it caused.







Aviation British Transpor.  Plane Concord

The Concorde 002, the British prototype of the Anglo-French supersonic jet airliner project, is backed up against its $960,000 engine running base, a specially built silencing unit, during tests Nov. 27, 1968, at the British Aircraft Corporation’s plant in Filton, England.




What happened to the Concorde?

The Concorde jet, which was grounded in 2003, was the only supersonic commercial airliner that ever flew. Its maiden flight took place in 1969.

At the time it was considered a technological marvel and a source of pride in Britain and France, whose aerospace companies joined forces to produce the plane.

The plane holds the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a passenger aircraft: 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s Kennedy Airport.

But the Concorde never went mainstream, due to challenging economics and the fact that it was banned on several overland routes. Only 20 were built, of which 14 were used for passenger service.







France Concorde Crash

Air France Concorde flight 4590 takes off with fire trailing from its engine on the left wing July 25, 2000, at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.




A deadly crash more than two decades ago hastened the jet’s demise.

On July 25, 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel and exploded shortly after takeoff in Paris, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.

Investigators determined the plane ran over a metal strip, damaging a tire that crashed into the underside of the wing, rupturing a fuel tank.


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