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“Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to see NASA’s newest experimental aircraft? Yes? Me too. So let’s take a look,” Pamela Melroy, deputy director of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), enthused the audience, after which, as can be seen in the opening video of this article, a presentation video was played, then the curtain call and the public saw the new machine for the first time.
The SZ Tech editorial team also brings new photos of the machine. You can view them in the report above, which contains all the information from this article.
The newly launched supersonic aircraft X-59 QueSST is 30.4 meters long, has a wingspan of nine meters and can weigh up to 14.7 tonnes at takeoff. But it should fly a fifth faster than the speed of sound, i.e. around 1,490 kilometers per hour.
The legend of supersonic flight, the Anglo-French airliner Concorde, flew at speeds of up to 2,180 kilometers per hour in its heyday. But in 2003, after 27 years of service, his era came to an end. On the one hand because of the bad reputation after the crash in Paris, but above all because of the high transport costs and the small number of routes, the so-called sonic boom, i.e. the noise when the speed of sound is overcome, also contributed to this.
How does a new airplane beat the noise when it exceeds the speed of sound?
And that’s exactly what NASA wants to change. The X-59 QueSST is a prototype on which he wants to test the design and technology that will allow him to break the sonic boom even at supersonic speeds. And according to the authority, the machine will mark the beginning of a new era of air traffic, in which the return of commercial supersonic flights can be expected.
“As for the NASA statement, I consider it a kind of marketing and not a real milestone in aviation.” On the other hand, the promised noise parameters in supersonic flight look really very impressive, and in that sense it is a very important scientific milestone, on which I am happy about,” says Pavel Zikmund from the Aviation Institute of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, describing his impressions in the introductory video of this article Engineering BUT in Brno.
A machine worth more than five billion
NASA’s new aircraft features a revolutionary design to eliminate the loud shockwave. The defense company Lockheed Martin, which built the machine, worked with the American government agency on the development under a contract worth 247.5 million dollars, or around 5.6 billion crowns. The key lies primarily in its futuristic aerodynamic shape and innovative construction.
“At first glance, you notice a clearly protruding long snout, which takes up almost a third of the length. And that’s a really crucial design for dissipating shock waves. These form around the levels and merge together until the familiar bang is created. Because the machine is designed to distract them, they never merge, solving this problem. “It’s really incredible,” says NASA Deputy Chief Melroy in the article’s introductory video.
“I trust them on that, and there are certainly more factors at play.” Slimness is a very important design parameter here. And they really took it to the extreme. And you can also notice that the aircraft has more control surfaces than usual, and perhaps with these control surfaces they will try to split the two large shock waves into several smaller ones, which may not be able to be carried over such a distance,” he comments for SZ Tech Sigismund.
He doesn’t skimp on the unusual. The machine also lacks a windshield
NASA’s X-59 QueSST has two superimposed horizontal tail surfaces (VOP) and a bow, so-called duck. “In addition to the wing, it actually has three other horizontal surfaces, which is completely unusual for aircraft,” the Czech expert adds in the video report.
But there’s something else that’s helping to break the supersonic boom in NASA’s experimental aircraft design.
“In order to further improve the low noise level during supersonic flight, the cockpit is positioned almost halfway along the length of the aircraft. And as mentioned, the windshield prevented the machine from being quiet. And that’s why it doesn’t have a windshield. “It is in itself an important step forward in improving aviation technology, while at the same time prioritizing the comfort of people on the ground (control center, editor’s note),” adds Melroy.
“The limited visibility in the cockpit was a big challenge. For this reason, our team has developed an external vision system that is a true miracle in the field of high-resolution cameras that transmit images to a high-resolution monitor,” adds NASA’s deputy director in the introductory video.
This new windshield-less cockpit design can also be applied to aircraft other than just supersonic aircraft, improving their performance and operation. “In addition to the current application for the
A third quieter than the Concorde. What is the machine waiting for now?
However, the main goal of the X-59 QueSST will still be to convince US regulators to change the ban on supersonic commercial aircraft over land. That is, if they are able to destroy the sonic boom.
NASA estimates that its machine will not exceed 75 decibels (the normal spin of a washing machine), while the Concorde machine was at 105 decibels. It is set to launch for the first time this year and will immediately begin testing in select populated areas across the US that will show how people on the ground perceive sounds. The data is then evaluated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The X-59 QueSST experimental aircraft itself will not be used for commercial transport purposes, nor possibly for military purposes. But if the design proves successful, it could be applied to these areas.
“This aircraft is optimized purely for noise reduction. But if they want to build a commercial aircraft, they will already be looking for a compromise between noise and accommodating a sufficient number of passengers and luggage, and they certainly will not achieve such a low noise level,” explains Zikmund in the report.
Airlines have already ordered dozens of Concords
The startup Boom Supersonic is also developing a supersonic aircraft in the USA, this time for transport. His Overture will be designed to accommodate 65 to 80 passengers, as it only provides one seat on each side of the aisle for comfort. Concorde had 100 seats.
Overture is said to fly just as high as the famous legend, only 90 kilometers per hour slower. Nevertheless, he can fly the London – New York route in 3.5 hours. Because of the noise, it flies over land at 1,150 kilometers per hour, i.e. still more than 200 kilometers per hour faster than today’s Boeings, and can serve over 600 flight routes even with this limitation. He can cover the longest route from Los Angeles to Sydney in eight hours.
The plane, costing at least $200 million, has already been ordered by dozens of units, including Japan, American and United Airlines and the US Air Force. In addition, the new engines should be CO2 neutral and the startup is continuously optimizing the entire hull design. Production of the first pieces is scheduled to begin this year, and operational approval is expected for 2029.
“I see this aircraft as a new generation of Concorde. Because it has a very similar concept. And I expect it will be a little more efficient, smaller, slower, but it’s not as revolutionary an innovation as, say, the X-59 aircraft. This aircraft will also be banned from supersonic flights over land. And as far as implementation is concerned, the question arises as to how to deal with the engines, for example, because it is still in the research phase and nothing has really been finished yet,” explains the Czech expert from the Institute of Aviation at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering the BUT.
Airline tickets will be expensive at first. But the goal is affordability
Even if the American start-up could receive approval to operate within five years and the mentioned airlines began using its machines to carry passengers, there would still be an obstacle for everyone to board the supersonic aircraft. And that is the price.
“If it really succeeds, it will certainly be an interesting aircraft for the market.” However, it is aimed at a small proportion of people who fly in business class and do not care about the ticket price. Because with such an aircraft, I expect that the ticket prices can increase tenfold compared to regular low-cost airlines, for example. Therefore, it will probably not be an aircraft for normal flight,” adds Pavel Zikmund from SZ Tech.
Boom Supersonic itself has previously stated that its long-term goal is to take passengers “anywhere in the world in four hours for $100,” but that certainly won’t be the case in its first few years of operation. According to the startup’s management, the prices for the first tickets could range from four thousand to five thousand dollars, that is, approximately from 97 to 121 thousand crowns.
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