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Supersonic & Hypersonic Aviation

Kondoru said:
Not sexy enough.
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While I appreciate your point, 'sexy' is not part of the design parameters for a modern SST.

If the X-59 is anything to go by, aesthetically pleasing is not going to be a byproduct.

The old axiom of 'if it looks right, it is right' was broken about the time of Have Blue.
 
As the X-59 edges closer to first flight, it seems the dream of ubiquitous SST is not so close as might have appeared.
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Boom's Supersonic Aircraft: How Will They Manage To Turn A Profit?
United and American have ordered the Boom Overture. How will they make money flying it?

When all of this is taken in light of emissions and particularly emissions from burning hydrocarbons in the high atmosphere (55,000 ft plus), and it seems SSTs may remain the stuff of the once and future dream.
 
I've often wondered what would have happened if projects such as the XB-70 Valkyrie, the BAe TSR-2 and the AvRo Arrow had come to fruition even roughly on time.
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Even though the primary mission that each was designed for had been largely made obsolete by the development of SAMs, would they have transitioned to low level penetrators or become high altitude reconaissance only?
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I know the TSR-2 was always envisaged in that role, but would it have been good enough to defeat the SAMs of the day?

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To this day, the Saab AJ-37 Viggen is the only known aircraft to have got a positive radar lock on the SR-71 on operational flight. Would the above trio have performed similarly? None had stealth or low observability in the design brief.

Would they have been quietly mothballed, with the lessons for supersonic operations contributing to a whole new generation of SSTs?

What if?
 
I always thought the Jaguar was a smaller TSR2 seen here getting airborne from the
Blackpool motorway during tests.

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RaM said:
I always thought the Jaguar was a smaller TSR2 seen here getting airborne from the
Blackpool motorway during tests.

View attachment 67994
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During my time in the civilian aerospace, I spoke to a number of people who worked on the maintenance side of the RAF.

Ironically, all agreed that in practice, the common variants of the Jag were underpowered, despite it being primarily a 'bomb truck'.
 
Yep the Jag did need all the power it could muster to get airborne
 
If supersonic craft create a sonic boom, does a hypersonic craft create a moob? So fast, the noise meets itself on the way back? ;)
 
I think we'll find that the engineering behind designing supersonic and hypersonic aircraft has moved on somewhat from the days of Concorde.
The 'sonic boom' that we are familiar with has been mitigated through designing these new advanced aircraft so that the compression of the air in front of the craft is reduced/shaped in order to muffle the shockwave down to acceptable limits which will enable them to operate over populated areas without making windows rattle etc, which was one of the major obstacles to supersonic passenger aircraft in the past.

They don't care so much about the 'boom' from military aircraft though, which are designed to get the job done rather than to please the ears of the population.
 
Nice up close video of some of the detailing of the X-59 quiet supersonic test bed.



Still little detail on a flight test schedule, but usually once the livery paint is dry, it's ground tests, taxi tests and then flight. I'd expect it to be airborne in Q2.

Along with the Boom prototype, that's two SST air frames ready to fly.

Looking forward to it.
 
Boom's XB-1 prototype cleared for next major test phase...

Boom's XB-1 test plane gets FAA green light for supersonic flight​

This new authorization allows the independently developed supersonic jet to attempt Mach 1 and beyond.
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Full story on Space.com
 
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