Commercial Supersonic Flight
From the first aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds, the Bell X-1 rocket-powered plane dropped from the belly of a Boeing B-29 mother ship, the X-1 flew at a maximum speed of 1,126 km per hour, or Mach 1.06. Thereafter many military aircrafts capable of flying at supersonic speed was built, though their speed was generally limited to mach 2.5 because of the damage on skin of the plane due to frictional heating.
A look at commercial supersonic flight
The first supersonic transport (SST), Soviet Tupolev Tu-144, was used to fly mail between Moscow and Alma-Ata (Almaty) in 1975. The first supersonic passenger-carrying commercial airplane, the Concorde, was constructed by the British and French governments which therefore led to it been named after the French word 'Concorde meaning agreement, harmony, or union since the aircraft was built based on a treaty of agreement between both countries.
It could carry 3 crews (2 pilots and 1 flight engineer), 92–120 passengers, it is 202 ft long, weighs 185,070 kg, and rocket-powered, and flies at a maximum speed of Mach 2.02(2,179 km/h).
It possesses a few special abilities (as at the time of its construction) like:
- Double delta-shaped wings
- Supercruise capability
- Thrust-by-wire engines,
- Droop nose for better landing visibility
- Full-regime autopilot and autothrottle allowing "hands-off" control of the aircraft from climb out to the landing
- Fully electrically controlled analog brake-by-wire system
- No auxiliary power unit
- Takes about half the time a conventional plane requires for a flight
Where Concorde failed
But then, these superpowers come at a cost. Apart from the fact that it is very loud, the cabin space is very tight and the aircraft is also not economical at all in that it was way too expensive and its fuel consumption rate is very high, it consumes about 25,600 liters of kerosene per hour.
With all these disadvantages in place and quite a several accidents which claimed hundreds of lives, the aircraft was retired in 2003.
This brings the question, Is commercial supersonic flight still achievable, and how soon?.🤔
The future of commercial supersonic flight
Yes, possibly before the mid-2020s.
I know you are probably doubting my answer, that’s great, you have your reasons. Why I choose to say yes is because companies like Spike Aerospace, Boom Supersonic, Aerion Supersonic, etc. are working hard to make this happen.
Boom Supersonic is a company working on smaller prototypes to test designs and aerodynamic concepts and then basically replicate the design on a larger scale. One of their current works is an aircraft called The Overture. The Overture is an aircraft that is supposed to be way faster than the Concorde, flying at Mach 2.2 (about 2,700 km/h) and carrying about 75 passengers. With this aircraft, you should be able to move from London to New York in about 3 1/2 hours, pretty fast right.
This company plans to do this by first working on a smaller prototype called XB-1 nicknamed Baby Boom which is still a work in progress. The prototype is a small single-seat aircraft with a length of about 21 meters (68.8 feet), a wingspan of 6.40 meters, and can fly two test pilots at Mach 2.2 covering a range up to 1,900 kilometers which were revealed in early October 2020.
This aircraft symbolizes the first privately built supersonic aircraft in aviation history.
Once this prototype design is fully completed and its aerodynamics validated has been suitable for commercial flights, work will then begin on replicating its designs on a bigger scale for the overture.
With this and the works of those other companies like the AS2 of Aerion Supersonic, Lockheed Martin’s X-59 QueSST, and others, the commercial supersonic flight can be as close as having it on or before 2026.
If you want to know better about where we are at in implementing supersonic commercial flight, check out these links
- Supersonic and hypersonic commercial flights firmly in view
- Concorde
- Which Companies Are Competing In The Supersonic Flight Race?
- Boom supersonic first privately developed supersonic aircraft is new attempt to break sound barrier
- Why we haven’t had supersonic commercial jets since the Concorde
Thank you for getting to this point with me.😄 Kindly share with your colleagues if you've found this piece helpful in any way.
