NASA starts experiments on a supersonic jet that will only produce 65 dB

NASA is committed to a frontline, that of supersonic speed flight, which seemed to have been closed with the release of the Concorde in 2003. After the Franco-British plane and its Soviet equivalent, the Tupolev TP-144, there was no were further attempts to take supersonic flight outside the military.

The US government agency has announced its intention to produce a low-capacity test aircraft that will allow you to experience silent civilian supersonic flight: the goal is to reach 65 dB of products from the supersonic boom.

There are three major problems that companies engaged in aircraft construction and aerospace research have to deal with when supersonic flying: the noise produced by the supersonic boom, fuel consumption and engine noise at the airport.

The second aspect is particularly relevant, and not only from an environmental point of view: if the high consumption of supersonic flight produces much greater pollution than infrared flight, the aspect of the costs, the lines of the areas have to bear is the most pressing to make supersonic civil aircraft reality.

By way of example, the above-mentioned Tupolev TP-144 was forced into the first versions to use a bumper to maintain Mach 1.6 speed, effectively increasing fuel consumption and costs. The Concorde was forced to stay permanently in 2003 not only because of the only – but decisive – disastrous accident of his career in 2000, but also (and perhaps above all) because of extremely high running costs, although he did not have to use a postbrush to reach Mach 2.2.

NASA would work together with General Electric to produce engines that contain total fuel consumption, even by adopting innovative technology solutions such as the positioning of gondolas – or equivalent – over the wings instead of underneath.

This solution should also help reduce engine noise in both infrared flight and supersonic flight. In the latter, the most important aspect is the geometry of wings and carlinga to mitigate the effects of the sonic boom.

The design currently being studied by NASA and Lockheed-Martin seems to be able to break this noise up to 60-65 dB (roughly the noise produced by a highway car) thanks to the shape of the aircraft.

The QueSST (QUiTt SuperSonic Transport) prototype, NASA has begun to search for a builder, should be 28 meters long and should have a 55,000 feet (16,700 meters) tangency. It is currently planned to install a General Electric engine that is the same as that used on the Hornet F/A-18 hunter.

NASA plans to spend about $ 390 million on this project, which would be a foundation for further developments carried out by private companies. Although supersonic flight is back in the past few years, thanks to initiatives such as Boom Supersonic startup, no US private company seems willing to invest in a field that does not promise immediate economic returns.

This is also the case with US law, which since 2003 prohibits supersonic flight on US soil due to disasters to the civilian population. The last obstacle to be removed, since NASA is successful in trials (and is not expected to start before 2022), is the legislative one.

But an increased interest in this field, similar to the spacecraft re-energized by reality like SpaceX, could lead to revisions of supersonic civil aircraft to skip the skies over the next few decades.