How the XB-1 aircraft went supersonic without a sonic boom

When the XB-1 experimental plane broke the sound barrier three times during its first fastest sound flight on January 28, a audioized mutation was not produced from the ground, according to the American Boom Supersonic company.

“This confirms what we thought for a long time: The fastest travel can be the cost and sustainable and friendly for those on board and on the ground.” Blake SchoolBoom Supersonic CEO and CEO, in a press release.

When the plane is pushed through the atmosphere at high speeds, it changes the air pressure around it, creating sound waves. And when the fastest sound of sound exceeds the speed of sound – Mach 1, or about 1224 km per hour – these sound waves collect to form a shock wave that spreads away from the journey path. This sound mutation can be largely traveling to reach the ground, as it produces a very high noise, shake buildings, and even breaks the glass.

Voice on the lands is so destroyed that it contributed to the retirement of the legendary commercial aircraft in 2003 and motivated many countries to ban the fastest aircraft than the commercial voice. Since then, aviation engineers have been trying to develop aircraft designs that can go through the scale of sound without a boom.

In this case, XB-1 benefited from the phenomenon of physics called Cutoff Mach. Since the sound moves more slowly to higher altitudes, the plane that violates the sound barrier in those heights will produce a mutation that cannot reach the ground – if the mutation moves down, the growing speed of the sound will work to deviate, and push the shock waves to the top instead.

The trick is that the temperature and wind also affect the sound speeds, and therefore the perfect height and speed of the fastest voltage depends on weather conditions. “The actual challenge is to get very accurate expectations on temperature and wind-The Cutoff flight speed is very clear from there,” he says. Bird Libharret At the German space center in Germany.

Boom Supersonic says that the last and last XB-1 test trip, on February 10, also reached the speed of the sound age without a mutation. The company is now using the test flights it has learned to help its future commercial aircraft, called OverTure, to achieve the same fence. Flight flights will be 50 percent faster than commercial aircraft today. This can make a time travel from New York to Los Angeles for a shorter for Los Angeles.

Laiphardt says: Flying at the speeds of sound era through shorter wild roads can burn fuel less than flying in the “worst speed of aerodynamics” – just below the sound barrier – says Libert. But he warned that taking advantage of Mach’s cut may be more than a position to use a position for “fastest working users.” It will provide less than an economic return to the service of commercial airlines.