For those that don’t know me, I’m not a huge fan of flying. I’m not certain why to be honest… as a kid I flew across the Atlantic a few times, even across the Pacific to go to Hawaii. Nonetheless, recently on a flight to the midwest I was impressed at how much quieter flights are these days… granted the Bose QC35’s are pretty helpful. If only the flights could be shorter… guess what, companies are working on that.
Looking at some of the technological innovation to press forward toward supersonic flight is pretty darn cool. There’s the Elon Musk route of ferrying people up into sub orbital flight to get anywhere on the planet in 45 minutes. But for those that are looking for a slightly more affordable flight, several companies are working on supersonic or near supersonic flight.
If you’ve never heard a sonic boom – you’re missing out. It’s pretty loud. Check your newspapers for an air show and typically they’ll have a plane zoom by super fast and you’ll go, “Whoa that was amazing!”
Most supersonic flights that were on the Concorde were over the ocean so as to not cause too much noise pollution with the sonic boom. As someone that lives near an airport, I can say I definitely wouldn’t be a fan of hearing the window panes rattle every morning as flights started arriving. Granted, I suppose it would be akin to the rattle that they make when the Millennium Falcon causes when it drops out of Hyperspace…
Nonetheless, aerospace engineering is working on getting you from point A to point B quicker. More here if you’re interested… http://www.techradar.com/news/the-jet-age-is-over-here-comes-supersonic-hyper-mach-travel
The Tech Blog of Dan Usher 