There has never been so much news about new supersonic or hypersonic aircraft projects, but also personal technology has never advanced as much as in the last decade. In my last 2 years of Aeroflap, and also of academic formation, the number of news that I have written, or projects that I analyze their conception, has never been higher and that just makes me excited about the aviation of the future.
Since 2010, when I really defined my area of activity in life, I always questioned about there being NOTHING supersonic for use in civil transport. Well, the world was already more advanced, in the middle of the 2000s it seems that we turned our attention to a more peaceful or “economical” behavior.
This post has a special reason, this week amid the flood of news I receive daily, a project called BOOM appeared. Interesting at first glance, sensible, they just wanted to fly at Mach 2.2, nothing fancy like that project that we report here of Mach 24. A enger configuration that is apparently smaller than the Concorde, delta wings with a totally smooth surface, rear empennage in my opinion with more refined aerodynamics than the 60 generation and twin engines.
The company responsible for BOOM, which is headquartered in Denver – Colorado/USA, says that it will use engines of a completely new design and intended for use in the aircraft, in addition to its structure will be made of composite material for maximum weight reduction and increase of resistance. No big deal, they are just taking advantage of the almost 50-year technological gap between the Concorde and the current generation of aircraft, such as the Airbus A350XWB and, a little earlier, the Boeing 787.
In supersonic flight we have two basic problems: The first of all is to exceed Mach 1, also called the sound barrier, for this the aircraft must reach the critical air pressure, and there goes more fuel consumption. The second point is the control of the commands in supersonic flight, because the air flow (at the same altitude) is much greater, any movement on a stick for example generates a reaction greater than normal for a supersonic aircraft, and for that it uses the Fly By Wire to correct and stabilize the aircraft.
A third problem would be the heating of the outside, but this could be optimized by using composite materials or by refining the aerodynamics. So it's not really important. But there is the fourth, which is the pressure differential between the inside of the pressurized aircraft and the outside at 60 feet, this really requires greater resistance from the material in which the fuselage is built.
With current technology it is relatively easy to resolve all these obstacles. Today the F-22 and F-35 (now the Gripen NG) fly at supersonic speed without needing the use of afterburners (known as supercruise), this is already an addition to greater fuel economy. Fly By Wire commands can be performed with fiber optic cables, as Mitsubishi is testing on the ATD-X, and current flight computers are much more efficient. The aircraft industry has already mastered the manufacture of various carbon fiber components and has also reached a consensus on internal weight relief.
Anyway, it's 50 years of evolution in aviation, when the Concorde was launched there were no personal computers, satellite transmissions, much less GPS. Mastery over composite materials was still in its infancy.
BOOM already has a partner company, Virgin Galactic, who are excited to provide in engineering, design, manufacturing, flight testing and operations. It already has a contract for 10 calls, followed by another from a European company for 15 BOOM calls. According to Virgin engineers, with current technology it would be possible to reduce the operating cost of flying above Mach 75 by 1%, when compared to the Concorde.
There will come a time when airlines will prefer to fly in 5 hours, instead of 13 hours (as in the case of BOOM). That the attraction for those who use jets today is to fly in an executive of a supersonic aircraft, taking half the time it would take in your private jet and flying at 60 feet.
News source – CNN
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