MIT and NASA Designing Silent Aircraft 176
Iddo Genuth writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics recently won a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to design quieter, more energy efficient, and more environmentally friendly commercial airplanes. The two-million-dollar contract from NASA is just an initial step in bringing green technologies to the sky."
Engine maintance costs. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Jet tehcnology can't do it ever (Score:2, Insightful)
About time... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, they will never be silent, but they haven't been doing much improvement in the last 30 years. The old 707 engines were remarkably loud - going to turbo-fans made a big improvement, but I feel like they haven't made any further reductions since the "hush kits" of the late 1970s.
The entire Florida peninsula is severely noise-polluted from aircraft. Even when they are flying over at 30,000 feet, they're louder than the breeze in the trees, or an idling car engine, 6' away. If they can reduce the sound output to where the noise from a jet at cruising altitude is less than normal ambient noise in a suburban neighborhood, that would be a big accomplishment. I doubt they'll get it down to where you can't hear them while standing in a quiet field away from air-conditioners noise of passing cars - but they can try....
Also, don't forget the military aspect of this - F4 Phantoms were intimidating, but they certainly wouldn't sneak up on anyone, even if the person was deaf they could feel an F4 coming. F16s are a huge improvement, noise wise. I've never heard a stealth fighter in person, but I assume their noise signature could be reduced too. A fighter jet capable of silent approach and supersonic response speeds would have plenty of applications.
Re:About time... (Score:2, Insightful)
Just a quick fyi, a supersonic aircraft outruns its own noise. You don't hear them coming.
Re:Silent, I don't think so (Score:3, Insightful)
The noise an airplane makes at its home base doesn't count. The noise it makes over an enemy position in the night does.
rj
Re:Before you make that aircraft... (Score:2, Insightful)
s/Silent Aircraft/Silent powered Aircraft/ (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's called a balloon. (Score:4, Insightful)
Just so you know, 'catapult' is the category of all heavy leverage throwers. Onagers and trebuchets are catapults; slingshots are not; ballistas, being composed of two small opposing onagers, might be ("paracatapult"?).
Efficiency is Key (Score:3, Insightful)
The airlines could care less about noise, comfort, and environmental impact. If it saves them some gas then it may fly.
Re:Silent, I don't think so (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe that's all we had left after bailing out the bankers? :-P
Re:About time... (Score:3, Insightful)
But they don't outrun radio or networks. If they're heard going over the coast, and the interior is on alert, they're boned. It's still better to be quiet, even if you are supersonic.
Re:Silent... aircraft. Huh. (Score:3, Insightful)
Fairly large numbers of people are killed by internal combustion cars, even with all the noise they make; anything that addresses that will also address the safety of quieter cars, and given that for the foreseeable future cars that usually move with an engine running are going to far more common than those that don't, will probably provide vastly more public benefit for the same amount of effort.