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NASA’s X-59 plane aims to reduce the sonic boom to a thud.

Ah, the glory days of travel, when the places were bigger, the food was better, and you could cross the Atlantic in less than three hours.

Since the end of the Concorde in 2003, quickly crossing the Atlantic is a thing of the past. Flights between London and New York take about eight hours, or close to seven in the opposite direction. Currently, the record is just under five hours between New York and London, driven by a favorable air current.

But now, the idea of ​​traveling at supersonic speed has been mooted again – by none other than NASA, which reckons the New York-London flight could take as little as 90 minutes in the future.

The space agency confirmed, in a blog about its “high-speed strategy”, that it had recently studied whether commercial flights up to Mach 4 – about 4,900 kilometers per hour – could take off in the future.

The study by NASA’s Glenn Research Center suggests that there are already “potential passenger markets…on about 50 established routes”. These routes were limited to transoceanic routes, including over the North Atlantic and Pacific, because nations, including the US, prohibit supersonic flight over land.

However, NASA is developing “quiet” supersonic planes called the X-59 as part of its Quest mission. The agency hopes that the new plane could eventually lead to a change in these rules, with planes flying between Mach 2 and Mach 4 (2,450 – 4,900 kilometers per hour). Concorde’s top speed was Mach 2.04. A jet traveling at Mach 4 could potentially make a transatlantic crossing in just 90 minutes.

Following the studies, NASA’s Advanced Air Vehicle (AAV) Program will now move into the next phase of research into high-speed travel, contracting companies to develop projects and “explore the possibilities of air travel, outline the risks and challenges, and identify technologies needed to make travel at Mach 2 or more a reality,” the agency said. There will be two teams working on the investigation: one led by Boeing and the other by Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems. Each of them will present designs for aircraft capable of maintaining high supersonic speeds.

A Fast-Moving Future NASA’s X-59 plane is already built and ready to be tested. Lockheed Martin

Studies similar to the current ones, conducted a decade ago, shaped the development of the X-59 plane, according to Lori Ozoroski, NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology Project manager. Likewise, she added, the new studies will “refresh the eye on technology roadmaps and identify additional research needs for a broader range of high-speed.”

The next phase will also take into account “safety, efficiency, economic and societal considerations,” said Mary Jo Long-Davis, director of NASA’s Hypersonic Technology Project, adding that “it’s important to innovate responsibly.”

In July, Lockheed Martin completed construction of NASA’s X-59 test plane, designed to turn sonic booms into mere pops, in hopes of making supersonic flight over land possible. Ground tests and a first test flight are planned for later in the year. NASA aims to have enough data to hand over to US regulators by 2027.

2023-09-02 08:00:00
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