Concorde jets retired back in 2003. This was the last time there had been supersonic commercial air travel.
Or was it?
According to How Stuff Works, NASA and Lockheed are formulating a plan to reintroduce a supersonic aircraft. To add to it, a startup is hoping to "cater to international jet-setters with its own service by the early 2020s."
The original article mentions the term "supersonic" could be misleading, however. Supersonic is defined as being faster than the speed of sound, but there are more factors to it. Elements including temperature and humidity are said to affect how fast speed would occur in regards to traveling through air. "What we really mean is how fast sound will travel through dry air that's 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius) at sea level."
That's a lot to take in and I'm right there with you in regards to trying to grasp it all. You can read more of the details on the "boom" Concorde jets make in their article listed below.
[READMORE]Supersonic 'Boom'[/READMORE]
NASA and Lockheed are creating designs for this supersonic aircraft that "won't be quite as loud" and they also hope to devise a craft that will be more environmentally friendly. Once that is done, Boom plans on creating a commercial supersonic jet service "for those passengers with deep pockets." There had to be a catch.
The startup anticipates a plan for jets to carry around 50 passengers. These jets will be traveling "at speeds of Mach 2.2," or 1,451 mph which is said to be over 2.6 times faster than any other airliner available.
The NASA website said recently around 45 social media representatives listened as supersonic travel was discussed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California over the summer.
"Attendees were able to see supersonic aircraft such as a NASA F/A-18 used in the supersonic flight earlier in the day, and the Ikhana remotely piloted aircraft that is a part of the UAS in the NAS work at Armstrong. Attendees of the NASA Social learned about aspects of supersonic flight and UAS systems. Regardless of how fast or slow an aircraft flies, NASA researchers are working on it."
How deep do your pockets actually have to be? At the moment, the monetary discussions are said to be "somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 to $10,000."
So while we know you have to start saving for this venture, you still have four years to do it.
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