The Concorde, which was decommissioned in 2003, produced strong supersonic booms, and now NASA is developing, in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, a new design that will produce much weaker booms
NASA has selected Lockheed Martin, through its Skunk Works® development department, for a development, construction and flight test contract for the quiet supersonic X-Plane, designed for commercial flights. As part of the contract, Lockheed Martin will develop and build a full-size experimental aircraft, X-Plane, which will be a preliminary design under NASA's Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) effort. In doing so, you will help NASA establish norms and standards for noise limits in commercial supersonic flights which are currently regulatory-limited in noise intensities for aircraft in flights over land around the world.
The Skunk Works laboratories of Lockheed Martin and NASA have been working for the past decade to develop the next generation of supersonic commercial flights. NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a contract in February 2016 for preliminary design to develop and build the X-Plane flight test simulator.
The aircraft will be built at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, and is scheduled to make its first flight in 2021.
In the second phase, which will begin in 2022, NASA will fly the X-plane for supersonic flights over Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California to test the safety systems and procedures for operation in a civilian environment. In the third phase, in the years 2023-2025, flights will be carried out from Armstrong Air Force Base to a number of destinations within NASA and the Air Force and then between 4-6 cities in the USA to receive feedback from the pilot community and the population.
The data collected from these tests will be forwarded to the FAA and the International Civil Aviation Organization so that they can formulate rules and standards for the sound level by 2025. If the demonstration of an aircraft on quiet sounds is effective, it will be possible to authorize commercial flights in these aircraft over the land areas of the planet.
"We are proud to continue our long tradition of partnering with NASA to enable the next generation of commercial supersonic transportation," said Peter Lousifidis, director of the Quiet Supersonic Flight Program at Lockheed Martin. "We look forward to applying the principles of quiet flight in the development, construction and flight tests of the X-Plane, and to provide NASA with an experimental aircraft on the basis of which it will be possible in the future to develop quiet commercial supersonic aircraft for flights around the world."
In the past, commercial supersonic flights were available for passengers who could at least afford it. The familiar and well-known is the British-French Concorde (which operated until 2003) but the Russians (then the Soviets) also had their own fast Tupolev Tu-144 (decommissioned in 1983). However, these planes were not able to switch to supersonic flight close to the ground because breaking the sound barrier would produce a supersonic boom - a loud noise that harms humans.
As a result, the current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has established regulations prohibiting supersonic flights over land. The purpose of the new plane is to implement a "Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator" - to carry out flights on ultrasonics that create booms so quiet that they will be almost inaudible to people on the ground. The key lies in the design of the new plane.
In conventional aircraft design, the shock waves merge as they move away from the nose and tail of the aircraft, resulting in two distinguishable supersonic booms. In contrast, the X-planes were designed so that the shock waves would move away from the plane in a way that would prevent them from merging again. Thus, much weaker shock waves will be sent to the ground, which can be heard as a series of soft thumps.
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Even an executive plane is a commercial plane, it is a market that generates billions and the price of a flight per passenger is many thousands of dollars (actually more expensive than the price of first class).
In short, it will not compete in tourist class, certainly it may compete in more expensive niches.
The fact that NASA is investigating is very nice, but...!!!
A commercial plane did not come out of it for several reasons:
A) NASA does not offer a solution to the "problem" of supersonic flight
The problem of the cost of fuel. And once again we will remind you, from the moment you get above Mach 0.9
The problem of air compression is becoming critical and the air simply "doesn't move" of its own accord from the place.
And you have to forcefully push it aside (in slightly less populist language: the air molecules are not enough
transmit to their neighbors the fact that they have been pushed and that they too will move aside and make room for the compressed molecules.
The speed of sound is actually the transmission speed of information)
Therefore, you have to invest a lot of energy in this matter. And that increases fuel consumption.
And it has already been proven that the majority of the audience prefers to pay less money. And even if it costs him time.
And in addition, there is also an ecological fashion now that encourages the consumption of as little fuel as possible per unit of distance.
And that's not what happens on this plane.
b) In order for the plane to reduce the size of the acoustic boom, it has to be very narrow and long (to push the
the air molecules to the side gradually). And more wasted physical space at the airport.
For example today the new Boeing 777 that is being designed is designed with folding wing tips to save
Location and presence at the airport. So bring a plane with wasteful geometry into the airport
such a I don't think it's likely. Or they will have to pay some kind of "fine" for an unnecessary size. And that will raise the price of the ticket again
c) The alcoholic boom did not disappear. It weakens, and NASA itself says it will sound like a "door slamming" of the neighbor's car.
(I will let you hear this boom on NASA's website for those who are looking). Completed one or two door slams a day. but
When dozens of doors slam in the middle of the night, I'm not sure the people below the flight path will be happy about it....
But why is it not listed how many passengers it can accommodate? - This is the most important figure... if it is less than 100 passengers, it will never survive - it will not be economical
Great idea, you cross the Atlantic in three hours, and get stuck in customs for another three hours.
One engine? A permanent state of emergency? Will passengers have to wear masks the entire flight?