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Supersonic Concorde could fly again thanks to quieter low-boom technology

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/...om-technology/

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- Tim Robinson, editor of Aerospace magazine, said we are now seeing the “most serious push since the 1990s” to develop supersonic passenger flight. However, one of the problems that eventually grounded Concorde was the sonic boom – the loud noise, like an explosion, generated by the audio shock waves as the plane flew faster than the speed of sound. The noise made it untenable for Concorde to fly regularly over populated areas – it was banned by Congress from overland routes in the US in the 1970s – dramatically limiting the aircraft’s potential routes and therefore its profitability.

- Enter Nasa, which is not just about the moon and Mars. The famous acronym stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and its aeronautical arm has been working to develop a low-boom – or quieter – supersonic aircraft. A team of engineers at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California have designed an experimental plane called a Low Boom Flight Demonstrator – more catchily, the X-plane – that they hope to have in the air within four years. By modifying the design, particularly of the front of the aircraft so that shock waves are more dispersed when they hit the ground.

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