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Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 4:09 pm
by Sandstorm
Boom test flight: 'New Concorde' prototype jet breaks sound barrier
US company Boom has broken the sound barrier during a test flight of its prototype aircraft XB-1. The test opens the way for the first supersonic passenger jet since the British-French Concorde, which was retired in 2003.
https://news.sky.com/story/boom-superso ... r-13298306
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:04 pm
by Blake
That article really buries the lead.
The really important part of the achievement isn't even mentioned, that they were able to design an aircraft that breaks the sound barrier without the sonic boom reaching the ground.
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:06 pm
by Sandstorm
Blake wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:04 pm
That article really buries the lead.
The really important part of the achievement isn't even mentioned, that they were able to design an aircraft that breaks the sound barrier without the sonic boom reaching the ground.
I don't think they can do that. The plane (once certified) is only expected to be allowed to go supersonic "once over the ocean...."
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:21 pm
by Blake
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:28 pm
by Sandstorm
Good luck to them
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:40 pm
by inactionman
Mach Cutoff is a genuine thing, but I understood it as being very dependent upon atmospheric conditions - things like temperature variations.
In that sense I'm not sure how reliable it would always be - you'd have to carefully select times, heights etc to make it work, which would be a significant consideration and constraint for commercial aviation. Years of US tech bro bullshit 'fake it until you make it' also make me sceptical, where they'll downplay difficulties. I also understood it to be not really much to do with the aircraft, more to do with the predictions of atmospheric conditions and the optimisations of flight to match these.
Saying that, even if limited in scope it would still be useful to curtail noise.
As an aside, when I first saw this I wondered why, if it's viable, were military aircraft not using it, given the clear tactical advances that would give.
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:43 pm
by Yeeb
Hope the EU bans it for being too noisy and thirsty, following what the US did for Concorde once they found out their own Boeing SST wasn’t going to work.
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:52 pm
by Blake
inactionman wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:40 pm
Mach Cutoff is a genuine thing, but I understood it as being very dependent upon atmospheric conditions - things like temperature variations.
In that sense I'm not sure how reliable it would always be - you'd have to carefully select times, heights etc to make it work, which would be a significant consideration and constraint for commercial aviation. Years of US tech bro bullshit 'fake it until you make it' also make me sceptical, where they'll downplay difficulties. I also understood it to be not really much to do with the aircraft, more to do with the predictions of atmospheric conditions and the optimisations of flight to match these.
Saying that, even if limited in scope it would still be useful to curtail noise.
As an aside, when I first saw this I wondered why, if it's viable, were military aircraft not using it, given the clear tactical advances that would give.
Yeah, science reporting in general is pretty terrible. It's either mainstream news sources that gloss over the technicalities because neither the journalists nor the readers actually understand the significance of the achievement or the challenges of what is being developed...or you get trade publications that fawn over the tech-bros' bullshit and dare not challenge them for fear of losing access in the future. So here we are.
I'm also skeptical about the commercial feasibility of this for the reasons you stated, but also for some of the reasons Concorde got canned. Supersonic travel is thirsty business.
Re: Boom goes supersonic
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 1:45 pm
by Hal Jordan
Sandstorm wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:28 pm
Good luck to them
Given the state of US air traffic control in this Brave New World, I suppose crashing into the ground at supersonic speeds at least gets it over with much more quickly.