Supersonic aircraft should return to the skies in the coming years
China entered the race to open a new golden age of supersonic air travel with plans to build a new plane that could supplant the one that was the most famous of supersonic jets, the Concorde, taken from circulation in 2003.
According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), the Chinese Company Company Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) revealed the plans for C949 – a jet capable of reaching Mach 1.6 speed (Mach 1.0 represents the sound speed, which corresponds to 1225 km/h), then flying further and faster than Concorde, citing a recent article, citing a recent article, citing a recent article academic.
According to the document, the project aims to increase the agreement of Concorde by 50% and was conceived so that the plane flying as quietly as the noise level of a hair dryer.
To this end, the plane’s body will be curved, which will weaken the waves of shock, slowing the violent explosions that could be produced by the plane, says the SCMP article.
Reducing noise levels is a way for the plane to try to circumvent regulatory barriers that prohibit supersonic flights, SCMP continues.
Euronews Next is trying to verify these statements independently, contacting the academic magazine that published the conclusions, as well as the Comac, but received no response until the time of publication.
Supersonic Airplanes in Project
Concorde, an Anglo-French supersonic plane who performed his first test flight in 1969, made about 50,000 flights to British Airways over his 26 years of career.
The aircraft, with a top speed of Mach 2,04 cruise (about 2,180 km/h), had a flying time from London to New York from less than three and a half hours instead of the normal 8 hours of a subsonic flight.
There is no non-military supersonic plane on duty since the removal of Concorde in 2003, but there are other supersonic projects ongoing, such as X-59, a joint venture between NASA and US manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
Revealed last year, the plane flies at 55,000 feet (over 16,700 m) and produces a sound equivalent to that of a car door to close, according to jet projectists.
The X-59 is designed to travel at speeds of Mach 1,4 (about 1,730 km/h), slower than the agreement and proposed Chinese C949.
In March, NASA announced that the X-59 successfully passed a motor speed control test, one last step before the first flight that is expected to take place later this year.
« We needed to verify that speed control worked not only in the engine itself, but as part of the entire aircraft system, » says Paul dees, X-59’s vice-propulsion leader at NASA’s Armstrong flight research center in a statement.
« This test has confirmed that all components – software, mechanical connections and control laws – work together as planned. »
Private company BoomSonic wants to launch its supersonic jet, Overture, before the end of the decade.
On the first XB-1 test flight in January, the aircraft flew up to 1,207 km/ha an altitude of over 35,000 feet (10,600 m) and managed to land without a sodium bang, according to the company.
Overture has already raised commercial interest, and the boom signed with United Airlines, American Airlines and Japan Airlines to deliver the plane as soon as it meets the required safety standards.
The European Commission has funded several projects to study noise reduction and the environmental impacts of supersonic flights, such as the Rumble 2022 project, the Seneca 2020 project and the More and Less project ongoing.
