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Top19 | 8 years ago
Even back then, supersonic, let alone hypersonic, aviation was such a pipe dream for civilian aviation. Not saying it can’t be done, but I can’t imagine the breakthroughs that need to be made would be made outside of any context short of a World War.
Let me list the problems:
1. Materials Science. Very hard to design materials that survive those kind of stresses, and that you know will last 30+ years. Airplanes routinely have 60 year life cycles, so 30 years of material survival is the minimum. The stresses on these things are huge. The Concorde would actually expand 10 inches from head-to-tail during flight because of the heat.
2. Overpromising dating back 40 years. My favorite example is Ronald Reagan promising an “Orient Express” that would be 90 minutes New York to Tokyo. That was in his 1986 “State of the Union”.
3. Acceleration. Flying Mach 6 is one thing. Having a plane that can accelerate up to that speed fast enough that the flight doesn’t already end, AND THEN slow down an equal amount, is another thing.
4. Sound. This sounds like a nuisance thing, until you hear one of these aircrafts in action. THEY ARE SO DAMN LOUD. It’s a health and safety issue almost. I would compare it to being around artillery fire, maybe worse. It stays with you for days.
The Japanese and Australians from time to time do some good work on this kind of aviation. Boeing had a civilian supersonic project in the 70’s, but it’s all been given up except for the occasional private jet or military experiment.
gaius|8 years ago
One word: Concorde.