NASA聽wants to create a new type of supersonic plane that doesn鈥檛 have the trademark boom.
A supersonic jet could fly from New York to London in under 4 hours 鈥撀燼nd circle the globe in just over a day. But the boom created when the aircraft breaks the sound barrier is so loud that it can shatter windows and dislodge roof tiles, so supersonic flights are banned or restricted in many areas. NASA has just awarded to US aerospace firm Lockheed Martin to try to change that.
The contract includes the design, fabrication, and testing of an aircraft that can break the sound barrier with a sound that鈥檚 just about as loud as a car door closing. The aircraft, known as an X-plane, is planned to be 29 metres long and fly at about聽55,000 feet at a speed of approximately 1,500 kilometres per hour 鈥� 1.4 times the speed of sound. Lockheed Martin is slated to deliver this X-plane in late 2021.
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The first version will have a pilot, but no passengers. Its main goal is to demonstrate that it is possible to travel faster than the speed of sound without creating the intense shock waves that trail behind the aircraft to cause a sonic boom.
According to , associate administrator of NASA鈥檚 Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, the plane will start flying over populated areas in 2022. After these tests, NASA will 鈥渁sk the people living and working in those communities to tell us what they heard, if anything,鈥� Shin said in a news conference on 3 April.
Shin said that if the tests are successful, the results will hopefully be used to overturn the current US law that bans civil supersonic flights over land.
鈥淲hen the rule is changed, the door will open to an aviation industry ready to enter [a] new supersonic market in our country and around the world,鈥� he said. If NASA and Lockheed Martin succeed, commercial flights on supersonic jets may be on the horizon.
Read more: Small bang theory: Supersonic flight without the din
