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NASA Hires Lockheed Martin To Build Quiet Supersonic X-Plane (space.com)
New submitter john of sparta shares a report from Space.com: NASA has taken a huge leap forward in its quest to create an aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound without causing the ear-splitting sonic boom. The space agency announced today (April 2) that it has awarded the aerospace company Lockheed Martin a $247.5 million contract to design and build a new X-plane, known as the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), which may soar silently over the U.S. by 2022. Lockheed Martin's LBFD won't be built for transporting people. Before any supersonic planes will be allowed to fly over land, NASA and Lockheed Martin must prove that it's possible to break the sound barrier without the sonic boom.
Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, said that the LBFD will fly over select U.S. cities starting in mid-2022 and NASA will "ask the people living and working in those communities to tell us what they heard, if anything." The LBFD aircraft will be 94 feet (29 meters) long, or about the size of a small business jet. It will fly at a cruising altitude of about 55,000 feet (17,000 meters) and reach a speed of 1.4 times the speed of sound (about 1,000 mph, or 1,600 km/h). This will "create a sound about as loud as a car door closing," NASA officials said in the news conference.
Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator of NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, said that the LBFD will fly over select U.S. cities starting in mid-2022 and NASA will "ask the people living and working in those communities to tell us what they heard, if anything." The LBFD aircraft will be 94 feet (29 meters) long, or about the size of a small business jet. It will fly at a cruising altitude of about 55,000 feet (17,000 meters) and reach a speed of 1.4 times the speed of sound (about 1,000 mph, or 1,600 km/h). This will "create a sound about as loud as a car door closing," NASA officials said in the news conference.
Flying coast to coast in under six hours you fucknut. Thatâ(TM)s easily worth a one time investment of $250M or even $500M.
Currently it takes 6 hours minimum to fly from New York to Los Angeles at mach 0.8. If this plane can get business travelers there in 3 theyâ(TM)ll be lining up to pay double or more.
If demand was actually that high, It would be easier and cheaper to get the FAA to change the rules allowing existing designs to create a sonic boom over land while traveling over a certain altitude, and simply bring a new Concorde back (which travels at over 1,300MPH). Breaking the sound barrier should not be viewed as some kind of social impossibility given the amount of sonic booms people have endured for decades living near an Air Force base or a Space Shuttle landing site. A fighter jet squadron is not quiet by any means.
The reality is tickets will likely cost 10 - 20x more, and attract about as many people as those who fly privately, which is not that large a market. And humans have to sleep, so flying coast to coast is quite socially acceptable when done overnight without causing a considerable loss to precious business time.
The rules that prevent supersonic flights over land are probably more stringent than they need to be. The US did a test flying supersonic fighters over Oklahoma city eight times a day for six months. Most of the residents said it was fine, but a minority complained. There was also the side benefit that the law would cripple Concorde.