New supersonic aircraft set to halve travel duration

On December 19, 1985, a race between planes resulted in an impressive record: a Concord and a Boeing 747 from the airline Air France took off at the same time, the Concord from Boston and the Boeing 747 from Paris. Known as the world's fastest commercial aircraft (even today), the Concord arrived in Paris, spent an hour on the ground and returned to Boston, landing 11 minutes before do Boeing 747.

Still, on October 24, 2003 the end of commercial supersonic aviation was decreed, with the completion of the last flight of the Concord, considering it an unsafe and unprofitable aircraft.

Fortunately, the Lockheed Martin seems to have resumed the course of technological evolution in this field, with the N+2 Jet, a supersonic aircraft that would cut travel time in half, with a capacity for 80 passengers.

One challenge the company's engineers are facing is building an aircraft that can travel at supersonic speeds, but without making sonic booms - sonic booms that are created by objects traveling faster than they do. 340,29 m / s, speed of sound. O N + 2 has one engine on top of the aircraft, and two under the wings, in a configuration designed to reduce noise.

“To achieve revolutionary noise reductions in supersonic transport, an entirely new type of propulsion system is being developed,” said Michael Buonanno, program manager. NASA N+2 da Lockheed Martin. The company even created a video to demonstrate how these challenges are being solved in different flight conditions:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qo4BETzWPQY

It is worth noting that the Lockheed is not the only company interested in developing new supersonic aircraft for commercial purposes. THE Airbus is working with the aerospace company Aerion to create a jet that would make the journey from London à New York in just three hours.

Earlier this year, the Aerion unveiled plans for its first supersonic business jet. The model, called Aerion AS2 must fly at a speed of 544.04 m/s. Still, it won't reach the speed of the old Concord (603.50m/s).