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Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

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Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#21
post #5

Is the goal to be able to supercruise, or are they just going to be to waste tons of fuel on afterburning like the Concorde?

I'm far from an expert, but at least as it pertains to the SR-71, that craft was designed to use its afterburners most (all?) of the time[1].

Edit: Of course, the Blackbird had the benefit of refuelling mid-air.

[1] https://youtu.be/gkyVZxtsubM

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#22
post #6

I know nothing about Boom. Why is this impressive? We've achieved supersonic for passengers before. Are we meant to be interested just because someone is taking up the mantle again, or is there some new design that makes it impressive?

The Concorde relied on an afterburner to achieve supersonic flight, so it burned a ton of fuel. It also could not go supersonic over land because its sonic booms were too loud. This mean that flights could only go over the ocean, and they were expensive due to fuel costs. Boom's goal is to reduce the sound of their sonic booms 30x and eliminate the need of afterburners.

No. I don't think that's correct. The Concorde used its afterburners during take off and to get through the transonic region, where the drag is very heavy. Once you've gone past that the drag drops. At that point the Concorde can turn off the after burners.

Source: https://www.heritageconcorde.com/concorde-engine-re-heats

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#24
post #18

Pretty exiting times in aerospace these days. Seeing spacex doing awesome innovation with starship and boom making good progress bringing back supersonic air travel Can someone innovate general aviation

There's a company called Airhart that's trying to bring Fly-By-Wire to GA. But (at least in the US) I think innovation would be better focused on regulations - looking at you aeromedical specifically.

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#28
post #5

Is the goal to be able to supercruise, or are they just going to be to waste tons of fuel on afterburning like the Concorde?

I'm far from an expert, but at least as it pertains to the SR-71, that craft was designed to use its afterburners most (all?) of the time[1]. Edit: Of course, the Blackbird had the benefit of refuelling mid-air. [1] https://youtu.be/gkyVZxtsubM

The SR-71 engine is a weird beast operating like both a ramjet and turbojet due shaping the flow and injecting fuel in the air stream.

A ramjet [1] stays efficient at high speeds even though it on the outside kind of looks like an afterburner.

  It was a conventional afterburning turbojet for take-off and acceleration to Mach 2 and then used permanent compressor bleed to the afterburner above Mach 2. The way the engine worked at cruise led it to be described as "acting like a turboramjet".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_%26_Whitney_J58

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramjet

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Concorde relied on an afterburner to achieve supersonic flight, so it burned a ton of fuel. It also could not go supersonic over land because its sonic booms were too loud. This mean that flights could only go over the ocean, and they were expensive due to fuel costs. Boom's goal is to reduce the sound of their sonic booms 30x and eliminate the need of afterburners.

No. I don't think that's correct. The Concorde used its afterburners during take off and to get through the transonic region, where the drag is very heavy. Once you've gone past that the drag drops. At that point the Concorde can turn off the after burners. Source: https://www.heritageconcorde.com/concorde-engine-re-heats

That's right, the Concorde had engines capable of supercruise - long distance supersonic flight without afterburners.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercruise#Aircraft_with_supe...

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#30
post #5

Is the goal to be able to supercruise, or are they just going to be to waste tons of fuel on afterburning like the Concorde?

I'm far from an expert, but at least as it pertains to the SR-71, that craft was designed to use its afterburners most (all?) of the time[1]. Edit: Of course, the Blackbird had the benefit of refuelling mid-air. [1] https://youtu.be/gkyVZxtsubM

The afterburner on the SR-71's engine is being fed super-compressed bypass air from the intake. It can ignite the exhaust with comparatively minuscule amounts of fuel when compared to a regular turbojet.

At speeds beyond Mach 3, you don't even need fuel to ignite the oxygen. The simple friction and drag of the airframe is enough to ignite the oxygen around it and surround the aircraft with superheated plasma.

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