DailyDirt: Flying Faster Than The Speed Of Sound

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Supersonic flights haven't been available to the public since the Concorde (and the lesser known Tupolev Tu-144) stopped flying. The economic reality of flying faster than the speed of sound doesn't look too profitable, but maybe someday an airline will figure out a way to do it (and do it safely AND quietly). Or maybe we should just look forward to riding trains inside evacuated tubes.

• NASA is looking to design "low boom" (aka quieter) supersonic planes. The Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) project will be just the first part in a series of 'X-planes' for NASA's New Aviation Horizons initiative. [url]
• A hypersonic cargo plane has been patented by Airbus -- with claims to reach Mach 4.5 (much faster than a Concorde at Mach 2). To reduce the sonic boom, the plane has a rocket engine to boost it nearly vertically so that the sonic boom would dissipate in the upper atmosphere -- and turbojets and ramjets would provide horizontal thrusts at appropriate altitudes. [url]
• If you were thinking it'd be great to ride in a hypersonic plane with a broadband wireless connection, you might have to solve the communication blackout problem that comes with superfast vehicles traveling through the atmosphere. If an ionized plasma forms around your hypersonic plane (usually at around 5 times the speed of sound), you might be able to get around it with some special signal processing equipment. [url]

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Filed Under: concorde, hypersonic, planes, supersonic, transportation
Companies: airbus

DailyDirt: Flying Faster Than The Speed Of Sound (Again)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Concorde jet flew for nearly 30 years before it went out of service. And now, the time airline passengers spend in security lines wastes far more time than a supersonic jet could make up in the air (depending on the journey, of course). Still, traveling fast is cool, regardless if it's done by air or in an evacuated tube -- as long as it's fast. Perhaps there's some analogy to the Skyscraper Index where supersonic transportation designs arise right before an economic recession... so maybe hold off on buying a high-speed ticket to London.

• Airbus has a supersonic jet design that could take passengers from NYC to London in 1 hour. This plane would takeoff vertically and then travel at up to 4.5 times the speed of sound. It would be faster than the Concorde, but it would only carry 20 passengers at a time. (It will also probably never be built.) [url]
• China's first scramjet engine has been tested, making it the second nation (after the US) to develop a scramjet engine for sustained atmospheric hypersonic flight. These supersonic planes are meant for military operations, but it's unclear if these designs will have a practical use. [url]
• Refurbished Concorde jets could be flying again in 2019. Don't get your hopes up just yet, though. There have been previous (failed) attempts to bring the Concorde back into service. [url]

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Filed Under: concorde, hypersonic, jets, planes, scramjet, supersonic, transportation
Companies: airbus

DailyDirt: Getting From Point A To B... Really Really Quickly

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Transportation has evolved from simply walking to riding to flying to sailing and orbiting and all kinds of modes of travel. We've grown accustomed to speeds of 100-600 mph or so, but it's possible to go a lot faster. A Concorde jet could go over 1,000 mph, but those planes aren't in service anymore. Traveling to space might not appeal to that many people, but getting from NYC to LA in an hour might. Check out a few concept vehicles that could accomplish supersonic (or hypersonic) travel.

• Elon Musk's Hyperloop project isn't totally crazy. It's still somewhat crazy, but there are some people building a prototype now -- so a working version might exist someday. [url]
• SpaceLiner is a suborbital, hypersonic, winged passenger transport concept that could take people from Europe to the US in about an hour. Flying on what is essentially an intercontinental missile probably has some additional security issues, but there are plenty of other practical problems for this transportation idea. [url]
• Other evacuated tube transport systems (aka vactrains) could travel 5,000 mph all over the globe. That is, if anyone wants to build the tubes across oceans.... And maybe China will do it. (Or maybe not.) [url]

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Filed Under: concept vehicles, concorde, elon musk, evacuated tube transport, hyperloop, hypersonic, spaceliner, supersonic, transportation, travel, vactrain

DailyDirt: Flying With The Greatest Of Ease

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Airplanes have been commonplace for quite some time now, and we've grown accustomed to what an airplane should look like. Ask any kid to draw a plane, and you'll probably get familiar results. However, this doesn't mean we've reached the end of novel plane designs. Plenty of unconventional planes are being designed and tested, and here are just a few.

• NASA is testing an experimental wing design with 18 electric motors as part of its Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology (LEAPTech) project. Each motor can be optimized for better ride quality and noise reduction -- and possibly improved fuel consumption. [url]
• The Russian PAK TA concept is a supersonic transport that could be ready for military service by 2024. A 200-ton capacity plane traveling at 1200 mph with a range of 4,000 miles sounds a bit futuristic because it would be amazing to see a plane actually capable of doing it (but maybe not so amazing in another 10 years or so). [url]
• DARPA wants to make a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft that's much much better than a helicopter or existing VTOL designs. Boeing has a Phantom Swift design that's been built (as a 17% scale model) -- one of four contenders aiming to meet DARPA's technical specs. [url]

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Filed Under: aircraft, aviation, design, helicopters, leaptech, pak ta, phantom swift, planes, prototypes, supersonic, vtol
Companies: boeing, darpa, nasa

DailyDirt: Getting Into Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The cost of putting something into space has been getting a bit cheaper over time, but it's still not exactly affordable (unless you count the helium balloons that can reach altitudes of around 100,000 feet or roughly 30 km). The edge of space is generally considered to be about 100 km (~62 miles or ~330,000 feet) up. Here are just a few projects making some progress in getting stuff into space on the cheap.

• The International Space Station is scheduled to launch 33 cubesats into space. Some of these tiny satellites will be used for detailed imaging of the Earth's surface, and a couple of these cubesats will make Lithuania and Peru into spacefaring nations for the first time. [url]
• The concept of a space cannon that can shoot things into space isn't new, but a guy from Canada wants to build one in his backyard. Richard Graf has a Kickstarter project, looking for $65,000 to help him continue his work. [url]
• Virgin Galactic is getting closer to being able to offer commercial space flights to passengers (maybe later this year?). Virgin Galactic's third supersonic test flight for SpaceShipTwo has reached an altitude of 71,000 feet, its highest flight yet. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: cubesat, iss, richard graf, satellites, space, space cannon, spaceflight, spaceshiptwo, suborbital missions, supersonic, virgin galactic
Companies: kickstarter, virgin galactic

DailyDirt: Supersonic Flights

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Remember the Concorde? It was the longest operating commercial supersonic aircraft that flew its last flight in 2003 after 27 years of service. With a cruising speed of 1,350 mph (Mach 2), the Concorde could fly from New York to London in under 3 hours. For more than 20 years, the Concorde was the fastest and safest airliner in the world, but a deadly crash in 2000 that killed all 109 people on board, as well as 4 people on the ground, precipitated the demise of the Concorde, which was already suffering from a general downturn in the aviation industry. There hasn't been a successor to the Concorde since it was retired, but perhaps the following are some possibilities.

• Apparently, a secret team of Boeing engineers is still working on the Sonic Cruiser, which was cancelled and replaced by the 787 Dreamliner. Technically, the Sonic Cruiser isn't supersonic, since it's designed to fly at 0.98 Mach, but its design has changed a bit since the original was proposed. The engines, which would have F-35 like variable geometry chevrons, are now located over (rather than embedded in) the wings, which now also have vertical stabilizers. [url]
• The X-51A WaveRider "Scramjet," an unmanned hypersonic aircraft, successfully reached Mach 5.1 in its final test flight. It traveled 230 nautical miles in just over 6 minutes and was the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever. The X-51A is unique in that it uses a hydrocarbon (rather than hydrogen) fuel in its supersonic combustion engine.[url]
• Why isn't there a successor to the Concorde? Perhaps it's because we're too cheap to fly faster. In fact, we're actually flying slower today than we were 50 years ago. In 1958, airliners were traveling at cruising speeds of just over 600 mph, compared to today's more fuel efficient 550 mph.[url]

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Filed Under: aircraft, airline, aviation, concorde, dreamliner, flying, jet, mach, plane, scramjet, sonic cruiser, supersonic
Companies: boeing