NASA Wants to Take the Blast Out of Sonic Booms 187
coondoggie writes to tell us that NASA and JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) have announced a partnership to study the sonic boom. Hoping to find the key to the next generation of supersonic aircraft, the research will include a look at JAXA's "Silent Supersonic Technology Demonstration Program." "The change in air pressure associated with a sonic boom is only a few pounds per square foot -- about the same pressure change experienced riding an elevator down two or three floors. It is the rate of change, the sudden onset of the pressure change, that makes the sonic boom audible, NASA said. All aircraft generate two cones, at the nose and at the tail. They are usually of similar strength and the time interval between the two as they reach the ground is primarily dependent on the size of the aircraft and its altitude. Most people on the ground cannot distinguish between the two and they are usually heard as a single sonic boom. Sonic booms created by vehicles the size and mass of the space shuttle are very distinguishable and two distinct booms are easily heard."
The Right Stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Right Stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
sunborbital ballistic passenger flights... now that would rock(et).
Re:The Right Stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why NASA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why NASA? (Score:4, Insightful)
The big advantage would be to allow supersonic or hypersonic flights over continental landmasses. While it doesn't help the main issue of economics, it opens the business possibilities for cross country high-speed flights. Where I see this really opening up possibilities is hypersonic flight (M > 4~5) since the drag drops back down to subsonic levels, making fuel economy on par with the current crop of jet liners. Of course all the hypersonic combustion (scramjet) issues and the heating issues are still uhh, very non-trivial. I hate to know what a fleet of jets with titanium tipped, actively-cooled wings would cost.
Re:The Right Stuff (Score:3, Insightful)
Silent or not, supercruise is never going to become a viable mode of mass travel.
I'm sure it'll show up in the smaller private/charter turbojets, but that's about it.
Would be nice if they got the facts right (Score:5, Insightful)
And supersonic air travel did not pay when oil was $20 a barrel, how can it ever pay at $120 ?
And there seems to be some insurmountable obstacles in softening up a sonic boom-- you've already exhausted all options by traveling faster than the air can move out of the way....there's no t much wiggle room or time left.
Re:Would be nice if they got the facts right (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Right Stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lot easier than it sounds (Score:3, Insightful)