NASA Will Produce A Supersonic Passenger Aircraft

NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration) began working to produce supersonic passenger aircraft.Use of supersonic aircrafts for passenger transportation much to be desired for a long time. But It could not be performed because of some difficulties.

We have the technology of this method that can shorten the time of long-distance travel.

As you remember we use this kind of passenger aircraft ( ‘’ Concorde ‘’ French British co-production ) between 1970 and 2003. Unfortunately Concorde in 2003 was taken to the museum not to be used any more. There were a lot of reasons. 30 years serving to use the current technology of the Concorde, high maintenance, repair and fuel costs and reflection on the ticket price are the general problems. And lastly, 113 people killed in an accident because of a technical failure in 2000.

Apart from all these, there was a more interesting problem faced by supersonic aircraft. When aircraft exceeds sound barrier (1,246 km per hour), at that time a sonic boom which is very noisy event occurs. And the sound of the explosion was repeated at intervals during the travel. Passengers do not hear these explosions but settlement residents complain with this situation. US still prohibited supersonic flight outside of military air corridors.

NASA wants to find a solution to this problem and they aim to produce quieter supersonic passenger aircraft.

NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden said that ‘’ we would like to produce safer, quieter and more efficient aircraft and make air transportation more quickly and effective. 70 years have passed to exceed the speed of sound. So we want to continue that heritage with an entirely new design.’’ Chuck Yeager became the first person that exceed the speed of sound with Bell X-1 named aircraft in 1947. NASA developed 56 different aircraft with the name of X-Plane since 1947. The new supersonic aircraft will be designed to be a continuation of this series.

NASA will work with a team from Lockheed Martin on the given name of Silent Supersonic Technology ( QUEST ) project.

NASA Silent Supersonic Technology (QUEST) from Lockheed Martin to give the name of the new design will work with a team. After feasibility studies and acceptable level of sound across the country NASA research team will design the aircraft. Lockheed Martin will receive 20 million dollars over a period of 17 months for this project. At the end of the project where the results of the studies for the design of new aircraft from the company will be required to transmit the data to NASA.

The first flight of the new generation of supersonic aircraft is expected in 2020.