The civil supersonic plane XB-1 has been immortalized while breaking the sound wall on the Mojave desert in the USA. Photography, captured with the Schlieren technique, shows the waves of density of the air folded of the passage of the very fast aircraft. The XB-1 has not even emitted sonic booms heard from the ground, despite the overcoming of Mach 1.
Photographic credit: NASA/Boom Supersonic
THE’Supersonic civil aviation He is about to return operation after the retirement of the historian Agreedwhose last flight was there over 20 years ago, in November 2003. The spectacular photograph that you see at the top of the article, in fact, shows the civil supersonic plane called XB-1 (a demonstration prototype) while it breaks through the sound wall overcoming the speed of Mach 1equal to 1,235.16 kilometers per hour at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. The aircraft of the US company Boom Supersonicpiloted for the occasion by the chief tester Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburgrepresents the basis for the future Overan 80 passenger supersonic plane – the first made in the USA – which aims to reach a cruise speed of Mach 1.7. We remind you that all the planes (and also missiles) that fly below Mach 1 are defined as subsons; Those who travel between Mach 1 and Mach 5 are supersonic (i.e. able to overcome sound barrier and produce sonic booms); While beyond Mach 5 you enter the IPERSONIC field. China is developing the first hypersonic civil aircraft. But let’s go back to the shot of the XB-1.
The splendid image, which shows the pressure waves produced by the XB-1 while the sound wall break, they were obtained through a photographic technique called “Schlieren”, Used by specialists to immortalize the variations in density In a fluid, shock waves and similar phenomena. To obtain the scientists of the Nasa who collaborated on the project asked “Geppetto” to fly before the sun on the Mojave desert according to a specific trajectory; The aircraft was resumed through telescopes equipped with specials filters able to grasp the details of the pressure waves. The photograph was taken on February 10, when XB-1 made its second supersonic flight. The first was there last January, when the Boom Supersonic aircraft reached Mach 1.122 in the skies of California, during a flight of a dozen minutes.
A fascinating and distinctive feature of these aircraft lies in the fact of producing not audible sonic booms on the earth’s surface; These roars are so fragorous – often they are exchanged for explosions or even earthquake shocks – that in the vast majority of the countries i military jets they are obliged to avoid them on populated areas. It is also one of the reasons that has held the civil aviation away from supersonic flight, in addition to economic sustainability. To achieve this, the engineers behind the “Boomless Cruise” project calculated the exact speed and appropriate altitude in certain weather conditions (for example wind) to reach the so -called Mach Cutoffa condition in which the sonic boom “reflects in the atmosphere and never reaches the ground”.
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The flight of the XB-1 was followed by a team of NASA engineers who did not detect any tools through special tools sonic boom during the path of the plane. “We also confirmed that XB-1 did not produce any audible sonic boom, which opens the road to flights from Costa to Costa up to 50% faster,” said Blake Scholl, CEO of Boom Supersonic with enthusiasm in a press release. As indicated, in fact, the absence of sonic boom is a practically essential condition to allow supersonic line planes to operate in normal airports.
Clearly it will take some time before making all these aircraft accessible, capable of significantly reducing the duration of flights with multiple advantages for people and the environment. Scholl dreams of a future with flights that in 4 hours They allow you to fly everywhere in the world at the cost of just 100 dollars, even if at the moment it appears a little utopian. Boom Supersonic’s project has however already aroused considerable interest among the airlines. Suffice it to know that, as indicated by the CNN, American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines have already booked 130 specimens of oversteen. The goal is to be able to produce over 60 per year at the factory under construction in Greensboro, in the North Carolina.
