THE XB-1 ‘Son of Concorde’ jet is expected to reach speeds faster than sound for roughly to four minutes in an upcoming flight, its test pilot has revealed.
And civilians on the ground will, fortunately, be spared the deafening sound of its sonic boom.
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The supersonic plane, built by Colorado-based Boom Technology, is on track to break the sound barrier in early 2025.
In its first major update of the year, bosses confirmed the jet was able to reproduce “transonic” speeds of Mach 0.95 or 575 knots.
Mach 1 and above is when a jet can be classed as supersonic.
Chief test pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg, who has headed XB-1’s previous test flights, will be the man inside the cockpit when the next-generation aircraft tops Mach 1 – which is about 767mph.
READ MORE ON SUPERSONIC JETS
“Before each flight, I practice several times in the XB-1 simulator,” Brandenburg said in a recent post.
“It’s a very useful tool to practice airspace and fuel management.
“It also gives me our best prediction of how we expect the aircraft to behave in each new condition.”
There are several emergency scenarios that Brandenburg has to run through – such as if the engine fails.
“Finally, we run the profile at least twice with the entire control room: once with the flight going as expected and once with some sort of failure or emergency,” he said.
While XB-1’s supersonic flight will last between 30 and 45 minutes, it will only fly at true supersonic speeds for about four minutes.
The actual acceleration from subsonic to supersonic will fairly gradual.
“A common misconception is that the pilot feels extreme G-forces at supersonic speeds,” said Brandenburg. “This is not true.”
Once the aircraft is at a steady airspeed, Brandenburg will only feel the force of gravity and the slight pull of acceleration.
That goes for future passengers too.
The XB-1 jet has been authorised to fly in two airspaces: the Bell X-1 Supersonic Corridor and the Black Mountain Supersonic Corridor near Edwards Air Force Base in Mojave, California.
It’s the same airspace where Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947, in his Bell X-1 plane.
There have been no commercial aircraft capable of supersonic flight since the Concorde – which is why airspace is so limited.
The only aircraft to have reached those speeds have either been experimental planes or fighter jets.
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Why did the Concorde fail?
CONCORDE was the supersonic passenger jet considered the ultimate luxury in air travel.
Air France and British Airways announced they would be retiring their fleet of Concorde planes on April 10, 2003.
The plane had its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976, so was retired after 27 years of service and 50,000 flights.
Several reasons led to the decision to retire Concorde.
Air France and British Airways cited low passenger numbers and high maintenance costs.
By the early noughties, the planes were outdated and expensive to run, despite being incredibly advanced when they were first introduced almost three decades previously.
The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 majorly impacted passenger numbers, as people opted not to fly.
Passenger numbers also fell after an Air France Concorde crashed just minutes after taking off from Paris in July 2000.
The disaster killed all 109 people on board and four others on the ground.
The plane ran over a small piece of metal on the runway, which burst a tyre and caused an engine to ignite.
It was also the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer.
Supersonic aircraft were banned in the UK more than 20 years ago, for a number of reasons, but partly because they were deemed too noisy.
The US banned them even earlier, in 1973, as the sonic booms were so loud they made people’s windows rattle.
But technological advancements appear to be wiping out the dreaded sonic boom.
“XB-1’s first sonic boom at Mach 1.1 probably won’t reach the ground,” according to Brandenburg.
“We plan to fly at 34,000ft., so the energy will likely dissipate over the roughly six vertical miles between the aircraft and the ground.”
It’s unclear when the next test flight will be.
At supersonic speeds, the XB-1 jet could feasibly fly passengers from London to New York City in just 3.5 hours.
The flight currently takes roughly 8 hours on a standard commercial carrier.
Supersonic and Hypersonic Jets
There are several types of hypersonic and supersonic jets. A breakdown of what’s been happening in the industry and what’s expected in the coming years.
Talon-A
- Built by Stratolaunch
- Reported speeds of Mach 5
- The first test flight conducted in 2024
X-59 Quesst
- Built by Nasa and Lockheed Martin
- Predicted max speeds of Mach 1.4
- The first test flight in 2024 – but subject to delays
Venus Stargazer M4
- Built by Venus Aerospace and Velontra
- Predicted max speeds of Mach 6
- First test flight in 2025
Quarterhorse MKII
- Built by Hermeus
- Predicted max speeds of Mach 2.5
- First test flight in 2026
Halcyon
- Built by Hermeus
- Predicted max speeds of Mach 5
- First test flight by 2030
Nanqiang No 1
- Built by China’s hypersonic plane programme
- Predicted max speeds of Mach 6
- First test flight in 2025
DART
- Built by Hypersonix Launch Systems
- Predicted max speeds of Mach 7
- First test flight in 2025
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