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A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

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Re: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

#21

Post by hdndjsbbs »

darkteflon wrote: post #6

Cool science. But the article fails to take even a cursory stab at contextualising the plan against the economic, environmental and political backdrop - doesn’t even mention that there’s already been one failed supersonic commercial flight programme. This is as pie-in-the-sky as it gets.

I think a lot of the Concorde failure is tied to its status as a British-French project. Trans-Pacific flights are much longer and there's a lot of money in PEK -> LAX than in JFK -> LHR.

Qantas wanted to offer London to Sydney, but they couldn't fly supersonic over land. Mainland China or Japan to Australia is a feasible route for high-margin, low-capacity supersonic flights.

If you could make the flight from Beijing to California take less than 5 hours that seems like a premium product many ultra wealthy people would spring for. Dubai to SFO is also a possible route.

Re: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

#22

Post by gottorf »

hdndjsbbs wrote: post #21
darkteflon wrote: post #6

Cool science. But the article fails to take even a cursory stab at contextualising the plan against the economic, environmental and political backdrop - doesn’t even mention that there’s already been one failed supersonic commercial flight programme. This is as pie-in-the-sky as it gets.

I think a lot of the Concorde failure is tied to its status as a British-French project. Trans-Pacific flights are much longer and there's a lot of money in PEK -> LAX than in JFK -> LHR. Qantas wanted to offer London to Sydney, but they couldn't fly supersonic over land. Mainland China or Japan to Australia is a feasible route for high-margin, low-capacity supersonic flights. If you could make the flight from Beijin…

> Dubai to SFO is also a possible route

Is there really that much premium traffic between Dubai and the Bay Area?

Re: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

#23

Post by WorldPeas »

gottorf wrote: post #22
hdndjsbbs wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of the Concorde failure is tied to its status as a British-French project. Trans-Pacific flights are much longer and there's a lot of money in PEK -> LAX than in JFK -> LHR. Qantas wanted to offer London to Sydney, but they couldn't fly supersonic over land. Mainland China or Japan to Australia is a feasible route for high-margin, low-capacity supersonic flights. If you could make the flight from Beijin…

> Dubai to SFO is also a possible route Is there really that much premium traffic between Dubai and the Bay Area?

I think the more interesting question is /will/ there be that much premium traffic ongoing

Re: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

#24

Post by VerifiedReports »

hdndjsbbs wrote: post #21
darkteflon wrote: post #6

Cool science. But the article fails to take even a cursory stab at contextualising the plan against the economic, environmental and political backdrop - doesn’t even mention that there’s already been one failed supersonic commercial flight programme. This is as pie-in-the-sky as it gets.

I think a lot of the Concorde failure is tied to its status as a British-French project. Trans-Pacific flights are much longer and there's a lot of money in PEK -> LAX than in JFK -> LHR. Qantas wanted to offer London to Sydney, but they couldn't fly supersonic over land. Mainland China or Japan to Australia is a feasible route for high-margin, low-capacity supersonic flights. If you could make the flight from Beijin…

ORD -> Vatican

Re: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

#25

Post by decimalenough »

hdndjsbbs wrote: post #21
darkteflon wrote: post #6

Cool science. But the article fails to take even a cursory stab at contextualising the plan against the economic, environmental and political backdrop - doesn’t even mention that there’s already been one failed supersonic commercial flight programme. This is as pie-in-the-sky as it gets.

I think a lot of the Concorde failure is tied to its status as a British-French project. Trans-Pacific flights are much longer and there's a lot of money in PEK -> LAX than in JFK -> LHR. Qantas wanted to offer London to Sydney, but they couldn't fly supersonic over land. Mainland China or Japan to Australia is a feasible route for high-margin, low-capacity supersonic flights. If you could make the flight from Beijin…

There is a lot of money in NYC-LHR, that's why Concorde continued to fly that route and profitably too, once they realized how high they could yank the prices and still fill the plane.

Also, Concorde's maximum range was 4,488 mi, which was calibrated to allow trans-Atlantic but not much more. Trans-Pac was not an option and even Australia to North Asia would be a stretch.

Re: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

#28

Post by rdl »

darkteflon wrote: post #6

Cool science. But the article fails to take even a cursory stab at contextualising the plan against the economic, environmental and political backdrop - doesn’t even mention that there’s already been one failed supersonic commercial flight programme. This is as pie-in-the-sky as it gets.

Vastly more favorable today than it was when Concorde flew.

1) Rich people are WAY richer, and time is even more valuable 2) Businesses have some very important employees and "2 day trip" vs "3-4 day trip" is worth $50-100k 3) Larger population of people able to pay $20-30k for a flight than ever before.

The biggest practical impact is there's probably going to be a private jet version instead of just a commercial one, and there will likely be transpacific demand exceeding transatlantic. Also government/military use.

Re: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft

#29

Post by Insimwytim »

> At that elevation at Mach‑5, air around the nose and leading edges can reach temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832°F), a challenge the U.S. Air Force has struggled to overcome with its own hypersonic jets.

> To handle that level of heat, engineers constructed an advanced thermal‑protection system that maintained the aircraft's interior near normal operating temperature, allowing the onboard avionics and control electronics to function normally.

Hindenburg 2.0 waiting to happen

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