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Ocak 2021'de FAA, yeni nesil Concorde haleflerini kolaylaştırmak için sessizce yeni bir dizi süpersonik uçuş testi düzenlemesi yayınladı. Avustralya Havacılık burada, iş jeti pazarını tersine çevirecek daha küçük, daha sessiz ve daha çevre dostu uçaklarla pazara ilk giren olmak için mücadele eden endüstri büyüklerini listeliyor.

Boom Uvertürü

Yolcular: 65-88
Maksimum hız: Mach 2.2
Menzil: 4,250nm
Uzunluk: 60.6m
Distance: London to New York – 3.5 hours
Website: boomsupersonic.com/overture

Still 10 years out from delivery, the Boom Overture has already clocked up three very high-profile orders. The Branson-backed Virgin Group has put its name down for 10, Japan Airlines 20 but, perhaps most excitingly, the US Air Force has already officially conveyed its interest in the Overture being used to handle “executive transport”. That’s Air Force One, with a nod and a wink.

Founded in 2014, Boom hopes its model will be built next year, rolled out in 2025 and certified as passenger-ready before the end of the decade. But first, this year, a one-third scale replica called the XB-1 – or ‘Baby Boom’ – will take to the skies as a testbed for its bigger brother. The smaller model will boast three GE J85-15 engines, a 26-metre-long fuselage and a carbon-composite airframe, while the Overture itself will be 60.6 metres long and hold up to 88 passengers.

“XB-1 is the first step in bringing supersonic travel back to the world,” founder Blake Scholl has promised. “Flights at twice the speed mean we can travel twice as far – bringing more people, places, and cultures into our lives.” That means London to New York in 3.5 hours.

There’s still much mystery around how it will tackle the sonic boom problem, with Boom only stating it will take advantage of the latest high-tech “noise-reducing technologies” and the low-tech workaround of only flying supersonic over the ocean. It’s a similar situation for its environmental credentials, with Boom promising to undergo a carbon-neutral flight test program this year and take advantage of sustainable alternative fuels. Still, the business claims “every element” of the XB-1 and Overture has already been certified by the FAA.

Aeroion AS2

Passengers: 8-10 passengers
Maximum speed: Mach 1.4 supersonic cruising, Mach 0.95 subsonic
Menzil: 4,750nm
Uzunluk: 45.2m
Travel time: London to New York – 4 hours
Website: aerionsupersonic.com

How’s this for supersonic progress: Aerion plans its first delivery of the AS2 in six years and its first flight in just two. Will the business beat its rivals to market? “For sure,” said chief executive Tom Vice when asked. “We’ll get there years ahead of anybody else.”

Perhaps Vice’s confidence comes from having already completed 16 painstaking years of research to get the AS2 airborne – or maybe it’s a motivation driven by key backer Boeing breathing down his neck. It’s an open secret that the American planemaker has for decades longed to produce a supersonic business jet, but it’s now thrown all its chips in the Aerion hangar. It had to fight hard to get there: the long, winding development history of the AS2 began with Airbus as the core development partner, before being trumped by Lockheed Martin. At one stage, now rival NASA was even involved. Rumour has it Boeing has invested “several hundred million” to muscle out the competition and secure a 40 per cent share in the project.

Like its rivals, the project has focused squarely on tackling the sonic boom problem, but the AS2 has trumped its competitors with a genuinely innovative solution. It can fly to Mach 1.2 over land and use smart tech to ensure the boom refracts off denser, warmer layers of air rather than hitting the ground. The so-called boom mapping software takes advantage of the concept of ‘mach cut-off’, which depends heavily on atmospheric conditions. Over sea, its cruising speed notches up to a tidy Mach 1.4. Its environmental plan feels more well developed than the Boom. Aside from using carbon-neutral emissions from the first flight onward, Aerion will plant 100 million trees by 2036 to offset the globe’s most well-heeled executive trips.

Interestingly, the aircraft will fly slightly slower than the Concorde, with London to New York at around four hours, just two hours shorter than a conventional aircraft. Its small size and rapid availability seem to more than paper over this shortfall though – the company has already confirmed it has a $3.5 billion order backlog. The only known buyer though is Flexjet, which ordered 20 back in 2015.

“We absolutely intend to take delivery of these airplanes,” said Flexjet chairman Kenn Ricci. “The AS2 is the right airplane for today’s environment, and Boeing’s involvement puts Aerion’s supersonic business jet on a solid path to certification. If there were ever doubts about whether the AS2 would be built, the partnership with Boeing has effectively laid those to rest.”

Spike S-512

Yolcu: 22
Maksimum hız: Mach 1.6
Menzil: 4,000nm
Uzunluk: 37m
Travel time: London to New York – 3 hours 20 minutes
Website: spikeaerospace.com

The S-512 doesn’t just seem to have bettered the AS2’s shorter boom but rewritten physics altogether. Spike’s new supersonic aircraft, it claims, will generate a sound on the ground so quiet it will be comparable to a soft clap or “muted background noise” even at a full cruising speed of Mach 1.6. How? That’s where details start to get thin on the ground as well as in the air, but you’d expect it to live up to the boasts with a likely retail price of more than $100 million.

All over, Spike has set out its stall as the most ambitious of the five aircraft in development. For example, the cabin follows its sci-fi science, eschewing windows to boast enormous, panoramic digital screens instead. Passengers can peak outside via external cameras fixed to its fuselage, watch a movie, or if they’ve truly lost control of their senses up there, use them as a monitor to edit a PowerPoint presentation. The cabin also offers “bespoke leather seating”, higher oxygen levels and high-speed wireless internet.

Almost as incredible as the plans itself is the story of Spike Aerospace’s founder, Vik Kachoria, who left a “desert village” in India with his family aged three and received his first pilot’s licence at 17. He studied at MIT Sloan School of Management and Boston University, and has an MBA and a BA in Physics and Mathematics.

Like the Baby Boom, a smaller, proof of concept flew late in 2018, but the full-size S-512 is planned for testing in 2021 with deliveries by the middle of the decade. The big brother aircraft will be 37 metres in length, boast a modified delta wing, and be capable of London to New York in three hours and 20 minutes. “This is the future of aviation,” concludes Spike on its promotional website.

NASA/Lockheed Martin X-5

Passengers: N/A
Maksimum hız: Mach 1.4
Aralık: Yok
Uzunluk: 29.6m
Travel time: N/A
Website: nasa.gov/specials/X59/

If its rivals seem big on promise but small on details, NASA and Lockheed Martin’s heavyweight collaboration takes a far more pragmatic approach. Rather than rushing to unveil release dates or signed up customers, the pair emphasises the R&D nature of the project and has spoken openly about how they believe they can reduce the sonic boom. How? Well, there’s no cockpit, front-facing window – really! – and the X-59’s fuselage differs from conventional aircraft due to a dart-like shape that stops the various shockwaves formed on the surface from joining together – thereby eliminating the boom. “The X-59 is an experimental aircraft only,” says NASA. “It is not a prototype design for a commercial airliner and will never carry passengers.”

Development, too, has been far more open. NASA awarded Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, a US$247.5 million contract to design, build and fly a 30-metre demonstrator prototype – X-59 QueSST – and it’s hoped the larger aircraft will fly over several US cities in 2022 to validate the results. In a recent update, NASA said the Mach 1.4 aircraft “made great strides” in 2020 and work progressed on the flight deck, hardware and wings, which completed this past November. “The fact this is the first time we’ve reached a milestone like this … It reminds us the X-59 really is coming together,” said Steve Macpherson, who is leading the Lockheed Martin team building the X-59.

Virgin Galactic

Passengers: 9–19
Maksimum hız: Mach 3
Aralık: Yok
Uzunluk: N / A
Travel time: London to New York – 90 minutes
Website: virgingalactic.com

Hang on, hasn’t the Virgin Group already put its name down for 10 Boom Overtures? Well, yes, but in supersonic aviation – already used to a dubious bending physics – such trivial matters don’t seem to count. The most recently unveiled challenger is an as-yet-untitled side project spun off from Virgin Galactic’s space ambitions and in collaboration with Rolls-Royce. The pair plan to develop a new engine propulsion technology that could power a jet to fly at three times the speed of sound, enabling between nine and 19 passengers to travel between London and New York in an eye-popping 90 minutes.

The team has already completed a mission concept review and says it is now working with the FAA centre for emerging concepts to develop a process for certification. “We look forward to opening up a new frontier in high-speed travel,” said George Whitesides, the business’ snappily titled chief space officer.

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