Just thought I would let you know that Concorde did actually have supercruise without afterburner; for a significant period of time it was the only aircraft in the world, military or civil that could do that successfully. In its supersonic operating regime the Olympus 593 is one of the most efficient engines ever built! It is true that it is pretty loud at low level but compared to the aircraft designed in the same period it is not that special. Unfortunately deisnging an engine that can be efficient and quiet in both subsonic and supercruise regimes is non-trivial but as MtViewGuy says engine technology has moved on, still I am not convinced that the engines on an SST, certainly not this up and coming generation will be able to be as quiet as current subsonic airliners.
Secondly the choice of a Mach 2.0 operating regime was made with heat reasons being high up the list - a cruise at M2.0 while hot is much less hot than the M3.0 that was envisaged for the American SST which would have required special materials almost throughout. M2.0 enabled Concorde to be substantially built with materials of the day with more exotic materials being reserved for the very high temperature areas.
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Just thought I would let you know that Concorde did actually have supercruise without afterburner; for a significant period of time it was the only aircraft in the world, military or civil that could do that successfully. In its supersonic operating regime the Olympus 593 is one of the most efficient engines ever built! It is true that it is pretty loud at low level but compared to the aircraft designed in the same period it is not that special. Unfortunately deisnging an engine that can be efficient and quiet in both subsonic and supercruise regimes is non-trivial but as MtViewGuy says engine technology has moved on, still I am not convinced that the engines on an SST, certainly not this up and coming generation will be able to be as quiet as current subsonic airliners.
Secondly the choice of a Mach 2.0 operating regime was made with heat reasons being high up the list - a cruise at M2.0 while hot is much less hot than the M3.0 that was envisaged for the American SST which would have required special materials almost throughout. M2.0 enabled Concorde to be substantially built with materials of the day with more exotic materials being reserved for the very high temperature areas.