Supersonic aircraft

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A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft that, after crossing the sound barrier , flies at a speed greater than Mach 1, i.e. faster than sound. Speeds beyond Mach 5 are colloquially referred to as " hypersonic ".

Milestones

Bell X-1

The first aircraft that verifiably flew faster than sound in level flight was the Bell X-1 research aircraft of the American Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) on October 14, 1947 . The aircraft, controlled by Chuck Yeager, exceeded the sound limit at an altitude of 45,000 feet (approx. 15 km). A previous attempt with a German Messerschmitt machine is scientifically controversial and not recognized.

chronology

1941: The German Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket plane crosses the 1000 km / h limit for the first time in level flight ;

1944: The German Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket plane reached 1130 km / h in orbit flight (corresponds to supersonic speed at a sufficiently high altitude );

1945: According to unofficial statements by military pilots, the German Me 262 jet aircraft is said to have broken the sound barrier in orbit flight ;

DeHavilland Swallow VW120

1947: The American Bell X-1 rocket plane is the first demonstrable aircraft to break the sound barrier;

1948: The English jet aircraft De Havilland DH.108 Swallow and the American jet aircraft F-86 Saber break the sound barrier in orbit flight;

1953: The American jet aircraft Douglas F4D Skyray reaches Mach 1 in level flight ;

1953 Scott Crossfield became the first human to fly Mach 2,005 on November 20th. However, like the X-1 in 1947, his machine was carried to great heights by a mother aircraft.

1955: With the American jet aircraft North American F-100 Super Saber, the official, horizontally flown speed record reaches the supersonic range;

1956: On March 10th, in the British Fairey Delta 2 , the first person from the ground flies faster than the 1000-mile limit and, at 1,811 km / h, faster than the earth's rotation at the equator.

1968: The Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first supersonic aircraft that can reach this speed outside of specific flight paths.

1976: The British-French Concorde , the first civilian supersonic aircraft, goes into regular service.

Military aviation

From the 1960s onwards, military supersonic aircraft were mainly used in the field of fighter planes and fighter-bombers , as it is essential in these roles to be able to reach the scene of action in the shortest possible time.

Civil aviation

Tu-144 and Concorde in Sinsheim

The first airliner to exceed the speed of sound was a DC-8 with Mach 1.0124. This was achieved on August 21, 1961. However, the necessary speed could only be achieved in flight on an incline .

The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 completed the first horizontal supersonic flight (first flight: December 31, 1968). A little later, the British - French Concorde also succeeded . On May 26, 1970, it was again the Tu-144 that became the first commercial aircraft to exceed twice the speed of sound.

The Concorde was granted greater commercial success. It was only decommissioned on November 26, 2003. Their operation was previously no longer considered to be economically viable, but was continued for reasons of prestige. The Tu-144 is different: it was withdrawn from service in 1978 after just seven months of use.

On December 17, 2003, the SpaceShipOne was the first fully privately financed aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. The pilot on this flight was Brian Binnie . The machine came from Scaled Composites and was developed by the designer Burt Rutan , who is known for his unconventional designs . Exceeding the speed of sound must, however, be considered a side effect of this project, because the primary goal was the realization of the first fully privately financed, manned space flight.

No civil supersonic airliner has been in service since 2003, but there is still a need for fast intercontinental travel. In the meantime, work is being done on concepts for the even faster hypersonic aircraft , for which development periods of over 20 years are set. The projects for supersonic aircraft could be implemented much faster:

Lockheed Martin X-59
  • In 2015 there were reports on Airbus patents for an ultra-fast aircraft for 20 passengers. In 2011, Airbus presented the ZEHST (Zero Emission High Supersonic Transport) concept aircraft for up to 100 passengers.
  • The Aerion is planning a new supersonic business jet named for 2021 Aerion AS2 .
  • In 2016, NASA commissioned Lockheed Martin to develop the “Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST)” concept. The Lockheed Martin X-59 is supposed to fly at an altitude of 16 kilometers at 1500 km / h. Thanks to a special shape, the cone-shaped bang behind the aircraft is to be minimized and thus not penetrate the ground.
  • The American start-up company Boom Technology is working on a 55-seat Boom Overture aircraft , which will fly at Mach 2.2 from 2023
  • Rolls-Royce and Virgin Galactic want to develop a Mach-3-fast aircraft for almost 20 passengers.

Problem

Propagation of the pressure wave behind a supersonic aircraft

The main reason that civil aviation has never seen significant use of supersonic aircraft is their inefficiency. At the respective cruising speed , the Concorde , for example, has about twice as high fuel consumption as the Boeing 747 , but can only transport about a third of passengers. Added to this are the higher demands on material quality and maintenance, which further increase operating costs. On the other hand, there is only the time gain achieved through the higher speed, which is only of importance in the case of flights lasting several hours and for many travelers even then does not justify the higher costs.

Another cause is the so-called supersonic boom , which occurs when flying at supersonic speed. Its harmful effects (noise pollution, in extreme cases glass breakage, etc.) force flight phases that are covered at supersonic speed to be relocated over uninhabited areas, which restricts the possible flight routes. For example, the route from London to New York has a supersonic flight over the Atlantic. As a technical solution to this problem, possibilities are currently being sought (as of 2007) to deflect the pressure waves causing the sonic boom upwards.

literature

  • Supersonic without a bang: With the new X aircraft, NASA and Lockheed Martin want to test technologies for quieter supersonic flights. Test flights are scheduled to begin at the end of 2021. In: Flug Revue June 2018, pp. 66–67
  • R. During: NASA orders a low-boom flight demonstrator from Lockheed Martin: Instead of a loud bang, just a soft blow. In: FliegerRevue No. 6/2018, pp. 14–15

swell

  • "World record aircraft" (Aviatic Verlag 1999)
  • "Fight for Mach 1" (Hobby Library 1965)

Individual evidence

  1. Nina Trentmann, Gesche Wüpper: Aviation: Airbus patents hypersonic aircraft. In: welt.de . August 4, 2015, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  2. vet / dpa: Supersonic aircraft: Nasa orders Concorde successor from Lockheed Martin. In: Spiegel Online . April 4, 2018, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  3. Are we going to be faster than the sound again soon? , Tagesanzeiger, August 2, 2020
  4. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-begins-work-to-build-a-quieter-supersonic-zügeger-jet , accessed on February 15, 2019
  5. https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/76-Bestellungen-fuer-Ueberschall-Passagierflugzeug-Boom-3751156.html , accessed on February 12, 2019
  6. “Mach 3”: Richard Branson is also planning a successor for Concorde , Handelszeitung, August 4, 2020

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Supersonic aircraft  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations