America's response to Concorde completes his first overview flight in a California desert – The Mercury News

From Maureen O'Hare | Cnn

The return of overhaul trips was remarkably slow for something faster than the speed of sound, but a big milestone was reached on January twenty eighth.

Boom SupersonicThe American company, which guarantees the fastest aircraft on the earth, broke the sound barrier for the primary time with a test flight in Mojave, California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qisiviahwi

The XB-1, which has now accomplished 12 successful test flights because it was broadcast for the primary time in March 2024, is the forerunner for the event of the overs sound market overture from Boom.

When the XB-1 took off on its last flight from the port of Mojave Air and space, it was in the identical historical airspace during which the legendary pilot pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the primary time in 1947.

The aircraft, flown by Booms Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg, was first test flight at around 35,000 feet.

The fastest speed that the XB-1 had reached before the flight on January twenty eighth was 0.95, slightly below the Mach 1 surge threshold, which it hit during its last test flight on January tenth.

A Livestream Documented the historical moment for the primary civilian -surplus -jet in-built America and the primary independently developed overs sound.

In the control room, 25 engineers checked live data in the course of the mission.

The anticipated aircraft already has 130 orders and pre -orders from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines.

For many years of waiting

It has been almost 55 years ago that the 002 prototype for Concorde flew at Mach 1 for the primary time on March 25, 1970, and greater than 21 years for the reason that business excessive trip with the last flight of the Anglo-French airlines in November Ended in 2003.

There were several challengers within the overshade area, while the remaining concordes in museums in Great Britain, the USA and France gathered dust, but thus far no person has made it.

Boom Supersonic's ambitions remain high. CEO Blake Scholl told CNN last 12 months that he would expect overs sound aircraft to interchange conventional aircraft in our lives.

“I very much believe in returning overshaly flight trips and ultimately to bring every passenger on every route. And that doesn't take place overnight, ”he said in March 2024.

Boom's plan is that overture might be in operation before the top of the last decade and can carry 64 to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7, about twice the speed of today's Subsonic airlines.

“All over the world in four hours for $ 100”

When CNN Travel spoke to Scholl in May 2021, he told us that his dream was that individuals at some point “can fly everywhere in the world on the earth on the earth in 4 hours for $ 100. “” In 2024 he confirmed that this was still his “Nordstern”.

The company's plan for overture is on at some point on greater than 600 routes worldwide.

“A faster plane is much more human and much more capital. You can carry out more flights with the same aircraft and the same crew, ”said Scholl.

“We can significantly reduce all the prices and effects that get into planes by making them faster. If now we have faster planes, we don't need that many. “

The XB-1 test trade was used to prove latest technologies developed by Boom Supersonic.

Like Concorde, the XB-1 and the overture have an extended nose in addition to a high angle of attack for start and landing, which interrupts the pilot's view of the runway.

While Concorde handled it by having a movable nose, Boom's augmented reality vision system enables excellent visibility of the runway for the pilots without this extra weight and this complexity.

“The advent of digital engineering is a big Enabler for why the overview flight comes back,” Scholl told CNN in 2024.

“Future of Aviation”

In the Sixties, Concorde was developed in wind tunnels, which meant constructing costly physical models, recovering tests after which repeating them again.

“You just can't test very many designs if every iteration costs millions and takes months,” explains Scholl. But Boom has perfected the efficient, aerodynamic design of its aircraft using the arithmetic fluid dynamics, which is essentially a digital wind tunal. We can perform the equivalent of tons of of wind tunnel tests overnight within the simulation with a purpose to obtain a fraction of the prices of an actual wind tunnel test. “

XB-1 is made almost exclusively from carbon fiber composite materials which might be chosen for each strong and lightweight weight.

Overture is to be driven by conventional nozzle engines and as much as 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is to be operated.

We covered the SO-FAR Slow introduction of SAF Before that on CNN Travel, and Scholl said CNN last 12 months that he was aware of his current problems.

“There is not enough of it, and it costs too much, but it is scaled,” he said, but at some point he kept to make use of for all long -distance trips. It is the “future of aviation,” he said.

The construction was accomplished last 12 months with Boom's overture think about Greensboro, North Carolina. It was designed in such a way that it’s scaled to provide 66 overture per 12 months.

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