NASA Has Revealed Plans For a Quieter Successor to The Concorde Passenger Jet

Credit: nasa.gov

In order to reach New York from London not more than three and a half hours, Concorde cruised at speeds of over 2,180 kilometres per hour – twice the speed of sound. At half that speed, it'd break the drag, generating an infinite double blast wave that might be heard for miles. 

This incredibly bang led to a worldwide ban on continental supersonic flights, restricting the routes that Concorde could fly. It wasn’t particularly efficient either, because it burnt two per cent of its fuel just taxiing to the runway. These factors ultimately contributed to the aircraft’s downfall, resulting in it being retired in 2003. 

Now, NASA hopes to bring back supersonic passenger traveling by making flights greener, safer and quieter. to realize this it's announced plans to develop a ‘low boom’ aircraft, which generates a soft thump because it breaks the drag, instead of a disruptive boom. 

The $20 million contract to style the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) X-plane has been awarded to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and NASA hopes a working prototype will fly the coop in 2020. to assist build this next-generation supersonic jet, NASA has been busy conducting research into sonic booms. it's recently been testing an air data probe that will in the future be wont to measure the shockwaves generated by supersonic aircraft, providing information that would help improve their design.

What is a sonic boom?

As an aircraft flies, it compresses the air in front of it, producing compression waves a bit like the ripples created ahead of a moving boat. These waves move away from the aircraft in all directions and travel at the speed of sound. When the aircraft itself reaches the speed of sound, the compression waves combine together to make a shockwave, and when this shockwave reaches our ears, we hear it as a loud boom. If the aircraft is travelling faster than the speed of sound, the shockwaves form a cone shape that trails off behind the aircraft, creating a continuous sonic boom.

How loud is Sonic Boom ?

Sound	Volume (dB)
Sonic Boom	130
Thunder	120
Rock Music Concert	110
Food Blender	88
Vacum Cleaner	70
Bird Calls	44
Whispering	20