Boom Supersonic ’s protester aircraft complete its eighth flight earlier this month , dress a fresh record for altitude and matching its top speed as it prepares to go supersonic by the remnant of the twelvemonth .
The flight is part of a series of demonstration flights showcasing Boom ’s intention to bring commercial-grade supersonic travel back to America ’s airway . The rise costs of supersonic travel were slowly toss off the industry even before the Concorde ’s final flight in 2003 . But private company and federal agencies are devising shipway to repopularize the previously deafening manner of getting around , and the recent Boom trajectory inches the society nearer to that goal .
The XB-1 ’s eighth flight of steps took space on November 16 , and accomplish a maximum altitude of 25,040 feet ( 7,632 meter ) , its high height so far . The flight lasted 54 minutes and the aircraft achieved a top flying fastness of Mach 0.82 , tying its record speed to date .
The XB-1 aircraft in flight.Photo: Boom Supersonic
The demonstrator aircraft’sfirst flighttook place in March 2024 , and Boom plans some two more subsonic flights before achieving Mach 1 .
Mach 1 is the stop number of sound — about 767 mile per hour ( 1,234 km / 60 minutes ) . When objective exceed the speed of auditory sensation , they induce a transonic gold rush — the needlelike , thunderous crack of an physical object breaking the sound roadblock . The Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA)prohibitedcivil supersonic flight over land in 1973 , due in part to the constant sonic booms overhead and the booms ’ rattling of window freaking people out .
Boom Supersonic ’s work on the XB-1 runs parallel to NASA ’s development of the X-59 ultrasonic aircraft , whichwon a Gizmodo Science Fair awardthis year . At 99.7 fundament ( 30.39 meters ) long with a wingspread of just 29.5 feet ( 9 m ) , the stiletto - form X-59 has an arguably more eye - catching design than the XB-1 . That ’s because the X-59 ’s raison d’ětre is to mitigate the sonic roar that make so much uproar when supersonic flight was more common .
One NASA technologist recite Gizmodo that , to an observer on the ground , the X-59 ’s transonic boom will sound consanguine to the closing of a motorcar room access . In other Good Book , the sonic boom will become a transonic thump .
Boom ’s ultimate goal is to run commercial rider on its Overture jet , for which the XB-1 is a engineering demonstrator . Though the Boom XB-1 will be capable of surpass the sound roadblock , the ship’s company plans to fly its passenger blue jet at reduced focal ratio over body politic — specifically , at Mach 0.94 , about 20 % quicker than subsonic flight .
Meanwhile , supersonic enthusiasts are trust that the X-59 proves the “ transonic thumping ” can mitigate the impact of sonic boom over country . After the aircraft ’s in - flight performance is test , the woodworking plane will be flown over several U.S. cities and residents will be surveyed on the invasiveness of the aircraft ’s presence .
If the aircraft does n’t cut off life on the ground , the FAA may modify its regulation fence in civilian aircraft travel faster than Mach 1 over land . That would not happen until 2027 at the earliest , so you may as well keep your focus on the Boom demonstrator for now .
AeronauticsairplanesConcordeflightssupersonic jet
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