Aviation industry has evolved quickly over the recent years and we have seen concept designs of many new airliners. But the new supersonic airliner concept, being developed by Boeing, trumps all other contemporary designs. The company is currently testing a mockup of this concept at NASA facilities.
The idea of a supersonic airliner essentially aims at building an airliner meant for passengers which can travel at supersonic speeds. Naturally, the idea is very enticing because it would significantly trim down the average time of passenger flights.
To create a design for such an airliner, the Boeing team has studied multiple subsonic and supersonic concepts. In light of their findings, the team has created a design which features an airliner with a V-tail concept. The V-tail design essentially lets the airliner reduce the possibility of sonic booms from reaching the ground.
Currently, Boeing is carrying out an aerodynamics test of the mockup of this new design at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The best part is that while striving for greater speeds and better performance, the Boeing team is also trying to come up with a hybrid engine design which would make the new airliner ‘greener.’
For instance, of the two Boeing teams, one found out that using electric battery gas turbine hybrid propulsion system will reduce the fuel consumption by up to 70%. In other words, not only can this designer airliner make more environment-friendly flights, it would also bear less on the carrier due to reduced fuel costs. Although the design is still in its very early stage, lets hope that in a decade or so, we will be able to lay our eyes on a fully functional version of it.
Source: Boeing
Courtesy: Engadget
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