From London to New York in an hour and a half: supersonic plane promises to speed up travel

Today, a new supersonic airliner is under development, capable of reducing the flight time from New York to London by up to 90 minutes. Now such a flight takes from 6 to 8 hours (depending on the route, wind and type of aircraft). The publication told about the new development Independent.

18-seater S-512 aircraft of the company Spike aerospace initially, when it goes into commercial service in 2028, it will fly at Mach 1,6, or 1100 miles (1 km) per hour. At this speed, the expected duration of the transatlantic flight is about three and a half hours. The famous Concorde, the first supersonic passenger aircraft, flew at the same speed.

However, Spike Aerospace has big plans for further speed increases. In the 2030s, she expects to increase the speed of the aircraft to Mach 3,2, which will reduce the flight time between London and New York to one and a half hours.

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Spike Aerospace founder and CEO Vic Kachoria noted that “since time immemorial, people have wanted to travel from one place to another faster.”

“Being able to cover distances faster means more opportunities. Whether it's a camel ride instead of walking, or a six-hour flight across the Atlantic rather than a four-week boat trip across the ocean. Now imagine that a six-hour flight turns into a three-hour flight. This is what the supersonic aircraft offers, ”he added.

One of the enhancements to the Spike over the Concorde is its ultra-quiet technology.

“The Concorde was incredibly noisy,” said Kachoria. - Most conversations between interlocutors took place at a volume of 65 to 75 decibels, and the noise level in most aircraft cabins is about 85 decibels. It's not quite like a vacuum cleaner, but it's pretty close. "

“In our plane, which has no windows, the noise will be around 60 decibels. This is lower than the noise of a conversation. That is, noise canceling headphones will not be required, ”said the CEO of Spike Aerospace.

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Part of this noise reduction has been achieved by the windowless cab. Instead, they will install something like long monitors along the entire length of the cockpit on both sides. They will display panoramas and a variety of presentations.

In addition, the aircraft is equipped with seats that can be folded into a full bed and conference tables.

The company has, among other things, committed to launching zero-carbon flights by 2040.

The first supersonic passenger aircraft, the Concorde, entered service in 1976 and has flown for nearly 30 years. In 2003, they were abandoned due to a sharp increase in maintenance costs and a drop in passenger numbers after the fatal Air France Concorde disaster in 2000.

Several new designs of supersonic jet engines have been discovered in recent years.

In 2019, plans were unveiled to build the Quiet Supersonic Technology airliner, developed by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.

The airplane will move at Mach 1,8 (2223 km / h), but without the loud “sonic boom” that is usually generated when the airplane is outstripping the speed of sound.

This means that, unlike its predecessors, such a liner could perform flights over land. Concorde couldn't do it because of the sonic boom. Because of this frightening and destructive sound, he was prohibited from flying over land, he could only fly in a few coastal directions with the expectation that the "sonic boom" was heard not over populated areas, but over the ocean.