Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden on Monday said that it has awarded a first contract, worth $20 million to the US Company Lockheed Martin to develop a preliminary design of an aircraft which surpasses the speed of sound, EFE news reported. US space agency Nasa announced that it is planning to build a supersonic passenger jet which will be as quiet and efficient as possible.
Despite using a jet engine, which traditionally causes loud noise, the sound levels produced by the new aircraft would be minimal. The new design would also meet the requirements for reduction of pollution as it would optimize fuel consumption. "NASA is working hard to make flight greener, safer and quieter," said Bolden.
The design and the construction of the new supersonic aircraft will take several years and NASA estimates that first flight tests would start around 2020.
NASA selected a team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company of Palmdale, California, to complete a preliminary design for Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST). The work will be conducted under a task order against the Basic and Applied Aerospace Research and Technology (BAART) contract at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
After conducting feasibility studies and working to better understand acceptable sound levels across the country, NASA's Commercial Supersonic Technology Project asked industry teams to submit design concepts for a piloted test aircraft that can fly at supersonic speeds, creating a supersonic soft thump rather than the disruptive boom currently associated with supersonic flights.
Commercial supersonic flights were cancelled when British Airways and Air France ceased their Concorde operations in 2003. The Concorde aircraft was capable of travelling at a maximum speed of 2.180 kph, more than twice the speed of sound. The safety and profitability of the aircraft, known as the "White Bird", became questionable following the crash of a Concorde in Paris in 2000, which killed all 113 people on board.
In addition to design and building, this Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) phase of the project also will include validation of community response to the new, quieter supersonic design. The detailed design and building of the QueSST aircraft, conducted under the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's Integrated Aviation Systems Program, will fall under a future contract competition.
NASA’s 10-year New Aviation Horizons initiative has the ambitious goals of reducing fuel use, emissions and noise through innovations in aircraft design that departs from the conventional tube-and-wing aircraft shape.
The New Aviation Horizons X-planes will typically be about half-scale of a production aircraft and likely are to be piloted. Design-and-build will take several years with aircraft starting their flight campaign around 2020, depending on funding.
( Sources and Citation : http://www.geek.com/science/nasa-and-lockheed-plan-low-boom-supersonic-passenger-jet-1648680/ )
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