Boom's supersonic aircraft project. Archive photo
Moscow. June 5. INTERFAX.RU – The American airline United Airlines has announced plans to buy 15 new supersonic airliners in order to “return supersonic speeds to aviation by 2029.”
As the BBC recalls, supersonic passenger flights were discontinued in 2003 after Air France and British Airways abandoned the Concordes.
The new Overture will be produced by a Denver-based company called Boom, but test flights are still being planned. It is noted that before fulfilling the contract, Boom must comply with the airline's safety requirements.
Supersonic flight assumes that the plane is traveling faster than the speed of sound. When flying at an altitude of 18,300 m, this means that the airliner must move faster than 1,060 km / h, writes the BBC.
On average, a passenger plane cruising at 900 km / h, Overture is expected to reach speeds of 1805 km / h (Mach 1.7).
Thanks to this speed, a transatlantic flight, for example, from London to New York, can be carried out twice as fast. The Boom company claims that their future liner will be able to perform such a flight in 3.5 hours.
Previously, there were two models of supersonic passenger aircraft in the world: the Soviet Tu-144 and the British-French Concorde (it developed a speed of Mach 2.04, that is, 2180 km / h).
As the BBC notes, the main problems of supersonic aircraft are noise, fuel consumption and pollution. When the plane overcomes the speed of sound, a sharp, loud bang is heard on the ground. Because of this, aircraft are often required to slow down near civilian objects. Boom insists that their plane will make no more noise than a regular modern passenger plane.
