MONITORING (SW) – A future for supersonic travel relies on solving some or all of the issues Concorde faced as NASA and Lockheed Martin’s Quesst project aim to show sonic boom can be dissipated to manageable levels.
They plan to fly their X-59 supersonic aircraft over US cities and gauge responses from citizens.
Designs for supersonic airliners began in the mid-20th century, and by the 1970s we had supersonic passenger flight.
There was the little-known Russian Tupolev-144 and Concorde, a Franco-British supersonic airliner operated by British Airways and Air France from 1976 to 2003.
Concorde had a capacity of up to 128 passengers and cruised at Mach 2. It regularly travelled from London to New York in around three hours. The flights were expensive, mainly shuttling business people and the rich and famous.
Concorde was designed in the 1960s when it seemed like supersonic passenger transport was going to be the next big thing.
Instead, the Boeing 747 entered commercial service in 1970. Cheap, large and efficient airliners like it blew Concorde out of the water.
Designed to cruise efficiently at supersonic speeds, Concorde was extremely fuel inefficient when taking off and accelerating. Concorde’s expensive, “gas guzzling” nature was a complaint levelled against it for most of its lifetime.
Concorde was made of aluminium using design tools available in the 1960s. Modern design methods and modern aerospace materials such as titanium and carbon fibre should also allow Overture and similar craft to weigh much less than Concorde, improving efficiency.
While Boom is currently receiving a lot of interest, with orders from many airlines, Concorde did have similar commitment before it become available. Most of it didn’t eventuate.
Additionally, Concorde was the product of an analog era when the idea of flying to London or New York for the day for an important business meeting seemed like a necessary thing. In a world of remote work and video meetings, is there still a need for a supersonic airliner in the 2020s?
For now, supersonic airliners like Overture are likely to remain in the realm of the rich and famous, like Concorde did. But with modern technological advances, it will be interesting to see whether supersonic passenger travel once again becomes reality — or even goes mainstream. Only time will tell.
ENDS
Source: CNN
