“We are using an existing supersonic engine for the prototype because we want to keep the costs down as low as possible,” Wisniewski says. The Lockheed prototype will use GE’s F404 jet engine, which the company developed for the F/A-18 Hornet fighter planes with top speed of Mach 1.8, or 1.8 times the speed of sound. Image credit: NASA Above: A GE-powered F/A-18 fighter Jet is breaking through the sound barrier. Top: NASA's concept of a next-generation supersonic plane. we’re continuing that supersonic X-plane legacy with this preliminary design award for a quieter supersonic jet with an aim toward passenger flight.” NASA said in its news release, “Almost 70 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 as part of our predecessor agency's high speed research. Tests over populated areas could come in the next decade, depending on results and funding.Īirbus and Boeing are also looking at new supersonic designs. The first flight of a scaled-down version of the “low boom” plane could take place in 2019. “We are looking for design features that would minimize the perceived noise on the ground.”Įarlier this year, NASA said it would pay Lockheed about $20 million over the next 17 months to complete a preliminary design for Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST). “We want to know whether there is a level of sonic boom that’s not bothersome to the population,” says Wisniewski. The loud noise is the sound of shockwaves set off by an object traveling through air faster than the speed of sound. They are developing a supersonic concept plane that could quietly break the sound barrier without setting off a sonic boom and rattling everyone on the ground. The last Concorde landed in 2003, but NASA and a team of aerospace companies that includes Lockheed Martin and GE Aviation are not finished with supersonic passenger flight. “This speed limit actually made the plane much less efficient,” says Karl Wisniewski, director of advanced programs at GE Aviation. The prospect of noisy sonic booms caused by the plane crossing the sound barrier forced pilots to hold back the throttle above towns and cities after takeoff and before touchdown. The plane could accelerate above the speed of sound only over the ocean. And - as long as we’re talking about Mach I technically - it’s impossible for a commercial jetliner to break it.The Concorde was the first and last supersonic jet in passenger service. It’s astonishing, for sure, that the tailwinds and headwinds were that strong, but the sound barrier was never threatened. Since the airplanes are always in a moving mass, even if they were theoretically stationary in the mass - just hanging there with no power - they would still have been moving across the ground at about 200 mph - either forward or backward - but the airspeed would be be zero.Īlmost 800 mph now never ever seen this kind of tailwind in my life as a commercial pilot !! (200 mph tailwind ) /0XGTkEP9EB

It’s a calculation that considers temperature and density of the mass through which the object is traveling.Īs for how fast the jets were traveling yesterday, the airspeed indicator on the flights - both eastbound and westbound - were the same in both directions pretty much the same as they always are. That’s not how breaking the sound barrier works either.įirst, the speed of sound is not a fixed number. “It only broke the sound barrier in terms of ground speed, mind you,” Popular Mechanics says. The Los Angeles to London flight “topped out at 801 miles per hour, technically meaning it was traveling faster than the speed of sound,” the Boston Globe’s reporter writes. “Jet stream helps flight reach 801 mph,” said Fox News said, pointing out that the speed of sound is 776 miles per hour. “The jet stream is moving so fast right now that commercial planes are traveling faster than the speed of sound,” The Week blared in its headline. He was the victim of nature to an extent rarely seen, and he’s the yang to the yin of the focus of stories about what’s happening up there.Īlso: really questionable understanding of science and dynamics. “It was like flying to Los Angeles,” he said of the more than three-hour flight from Boston.

The person I picked up while Lyfting last night at the airport was exhausted.

Speed of sound jet