Real question: have we solved the radiation problem yet? The concord's solution was to sample exposure with a cockpit Geiger counter and descend to 40kft if things got too hot.
Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
41–50 of 283 posts
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
You sound like someone who doesn't live that far away from your destination. I live in Australia. Bring the boom boom flights! If I can get to London or New York in less than 20 hours, I will be very happy.
Flying trans-Pacific or the equivalent without refueling requires a whole different class of aircraft and seems very unlikely.
But parent didn't say they wanted that without any refueling. A London - Sydney or London - Melbourne flight would have several eligible refueling locations in Asia and Middle East. Australia - West Coast of the US would be more challenging I guess, but probably not impossible, perhaps some of the diversion airports in the Pacific would be able to support refueling operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversion_airport
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#43As a (pre-Covid) extreme frequent flyer, supersonic and other rapid point to point initiatives are thoroughly unenticing. Part of the reason I loved long flights was the ability to put away the laptop and zone out to a book or movie with some wine before landing, dealing with immigration, hotels, Ubers, and days of frenetic, high stress meetings afterward. The prospect of trying to optimize how fast we can jump from…
This sounds like you need a career change. People who want to get where they are going will absolutely welcome a faster plane.
I honestly don't get that. One can enjoy one's career and still enjoy spending time watching movies and reading books. I don't love flying even upgraded economy but I'm perfectly fine flying up front in normal times. Yes, trans-pacific is a bit of a drag but even that isn't a huge deal a few times a year.
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flying trans-Pacific or the equivalent without refueling requires a whole different class of aircraft and seems very unlikely.
But parent didn't say they wanted that without any refueling. A London - Sydney or London - Melbourne flight would have several eligible refueling locations in Asia and Middle East. Australia - West Coast of the US would be more challenging I guess, but probably not impossible, perhaps some of the diversion airports in the Pacific would be able to support refueling operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversion_a…
Once you start having refueling stops, you're losing a lot of the benefits to supersonic flight. Many of the inefficiencies are in the subsonic range and now you're going to be in queues for takeoff.
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#45Real question: have we solved the radiation problem yet? The concord's solution was to sample exposure with a cockpit Geiger counter and descend to 40kft if things got too hot.
Some discussion on this topic: http://health.phys.iit.edu/extended_archive/0407/msg00074.ht...
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
the military doesn't need to. they can boom as needed. most training is subsonic and during combat they aren't going to care if someone complains about the boom.
NOE flying is designed to come in fast and low, to avoid radar coverage. Announcing you're coming, and your heading, by breaking everyone's windows for miles around is quite noticeable.
(Big fat disclaimer: I don’t understand anything I’m about to say)
Wouldn’t the windows be broken _behind_ the plane? In my mental model, you’re flying below radar so anyone on the ground will know you’re there anyway. If you’re sub-sonic people hear/see the plane and you hope they don’t have time to do anything before you strike. If you’re supersonic they hear/see the plane, their windows break, and you hope they don’t have time to do anything before you strike.
What am I missing?
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#47>the development of the first privately built supersonic airliner and the second ever after Concorde Sad that in a rather specialized article author isn't familiar with such basic facts.
"Privately built", so it's technically accurate, even if there's still an elephant in the room. Similar to that amusing SpaceX marketing speak with the Falcon Heavy being "the most powerful orbital rocket since Saturn V", which was also technically true because both Energia flights were payload-assisted. (they changed that line since then)
That's not the issue. It's the third supersonic airliner, not the second; the Soviet Union had the Tu-144.
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's still a supersonic jet, just not the one you want. What is essentially a privately-built supersonic fighter jet is still impressive, but how much more investment will they need for the full size passenger version?
I trust Boom has smart people working on these things, but... model aviation doesn't scale up[1]. It's interesting they're going with a scaled-down model instead of a full-scale testbed. The article seems to incidate they're wanting to go from the scaled-down model as a PoC, then onto an actual airline that JAL want's to fly. I'd think they'd need a full-sized PoC first... > “They want to enjoy a first-mover advantag…
Quadcopters don't scale up. Flyable scale models have used extensively in other aviation research:
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
But parent didn't say they wanted that without any refueling. A London - Sydney or London - Melbourne flight would have several eligible refueling locations in Asia and Middle East. Australia - West Coast of the US would be more challenging I guess, but probably not impossible, perhaps some of the diversion airports in the Pacific would be able to support refueling operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversion_a…
Once you start having refueling stops, you're losing a lot of the benefits to supersonic flight. Many of the inefficiencies are in the subsonic range and now you're going to be in queues for takeoff.
Yes I see what you mean. I would be curious to see some estimates though(I'm not competent enough to try that) - how much time, if any, would you save, compared to an average flight, even taking the necessary refueling stops?
Re: Boom supersonic jet readies for rollout
#50This would be a super cool project to work on. Their website has a fun tour of all the engineering components of it: