Throughout the 1950s and 60s, aviation engineers struggled to overcome an important issue: That planes became increasingly difficult to control, the closer they got to the sound barrier. It wasn’t until NASA strapped a pair of custom-made wings onto this fighter that supersonic flight became not just feasible, but downright commonplace.
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Windows are kind of a drag for airplanes—literally. They add extra weight, weaken the body, and generally slow the aircraft down. That’s why the new Spike S-512 Supersonic Jet won’t have any. Instead, passengers get to enjoy their sky-high surroundings on real-time, panoramic video screens.
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SpaceShipTwo just finished its third rocket-powered test and reached the highest altitude its ever been at 71,000 feet by hitting a maximum velocity of Mach 1.4. You can see the new reflective coating on the rocket plane’s tail booms which perfectly reflects the flame and our Earth. Lovely. Cant wait to book my ticket!
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Unless you are a billionaire playboy or a business magnet of some sort, odds are you fly Coach like the rest of us when you travel by air. For the well-heeled, it’s First Class all the way, but for the really rich it’s private jets. A company called Spike Aerospace has a new private jet in the design phase it claims will be the fastest private aircraft in the skies – assuming it launches in 2018 as planned.
The 18-passenger aircraft is called the Spike S-512 and it will have a cruising speed of Mach 1.6. That makes it about twice as fast as a commercial aircraft. The company says a trip to London from New York would take three to four hours in its jet.
One of the biggest challenges to building the aircraft is dealing with the sonic boom when flying over populated areas. The FAA has regulations for sonic booms and those regulations are what greatly limited the usefulness of the Concorde jet when it was in service.
The 131-foot-long aircraft is expected to have a maximum flying range of 4,000 nautical miles, and will between $60 million to $80 million when it launches.
[via GizMag]
Delivering a nuclear strike is only the first phase of a mission. Next comes the most important part: hightailing it out of there before the entire area turns to glass. And for crews aboard America’s first supersonic bomber, getting the heck out of Dodge was done at twice the speed of sound.
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The ability to drop bombs on targets a continent away can be a huge tactical advantage (even if it is just saber-rattling
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Attention, amateur space cadets! If you’ve ever wanted to swing on a star or see one up close, consider this proof positive Virgin Galactic’s that much closer to making your dreams come true. SpaceShipTwo, its inventively named commercial vehicle designed to take well-moneyed civilians into outerspace, has just completed its first rocket-powered test flight. The craft, partially owned by Virgin group overlord Sir Richard Branson and the Abu Dhabi-based investment group PJC, took off earlier today from its berth at Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where carrier-craft WhiteKnightTwo ferried it to a 47,000 ft altitude after which its own rockets kicked in for a supersonic flight. In all, the solo run lasted just slightly over ten minutes, during which the SS2 notched an altitude of 55,000 feet before returning safely back to its desert port.
For its first outing, the SS2 scored high marks by Virgin Galactic chief George Whitesides’ estimation, performing just as expected with “expected burn duration, good engine performance and solid… handling qualities throughout.” It’s encouraging news for the nascent commercial space industry, although it’s worth noting this flight carried reduced risk considering it was bound to our own atmosphere. The team anticipates that “full space flight” testing will begin sometime before year’s end. As for when you’ll be able to actually book a real deal luxury space flight? Virgin Galactic’s set a tentative 2015 date for that, giving you, the every(wo)man, plenty of time to save up or mortgage your life for the opportunity to tour the cosmos.
Filed under: Science
Source: Virgin Galactic
No, you’re not looking at an early preview of Star Wars Episode VII — it just might represent the future of air transport, though. Boeing has spent years developing a truly quiet supersonic airliner concept, the Icon II, and what you see is an aerodynamics test of a mockup in a vaguely Death Star-like wind tunnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The starfighter design is for more than just show, as you’d suspect. Its V-tail design moves sonic booms further back, reducing the chance that shockwaves will reach the ground (and our ears) intact, while the top-mounted engines isolate engine noise. Boeing and NASA are ultimately hoping for production passenger aircraft discreet enough to fly over land at supersonic speeds, although we can’t help but think that the sci-fi look is a convenient bonus.
Filed under: Transportation, Alt
Source: New Scientist
NASA and its partners keep making progress in their quest to design a new passenger airliner that can fly supersonic without making a lot of noise, one of the main problems with the Concorde. And that progress looks space-age awesome. More »
Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking supersonic jump was an amazing feat of human endeavour. But getting Felix to break the speed of sound caused Red Bull Stratos technical project director Art Thompson some engineering headaches. Here’s how he solved them. More »
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