Prologue
Living in the shadow of one of the busiest airports in the World, the sky above us is always full of aircraft either on short finals or taking off from DFW Airport.
I am suddenly struck by what I have been seeing, all the aircraft almost without fail are twin engined ops and most have been around for decades
The above table clearly conveys most of the aircraft flying today are actually 40 year old airframe designs with improvements made in the direction of efficiency.
Wing Design
The biggest enemy of an aircraft is drag. Traditional wing design has always caused a lot of turbulence at the wing tips. There has been considerable time money and energy spent to improve existing wing performance with all new wings that incorporate the winglet / sharklet.
*image credit AME Question Paper via Google
Another area of tremendous improvement is the engines. What were previously noisy and smoky affairs are now almost quiet and smokeless. Almost all civilian passenger aircraft today use high bypass engines.
*image credit Wikipedia
The Race
From the early 1900s through to the 1980s it was an era of constantly breaking fresh ground. The image below shows the speed race over before 1980…set by the fabled Lockheed SR-71….Same goes for height.
*image credit Wikipedia
The B747 ( The Queen of the Skies ) and the legendary Concorde both had their first flight within a month of each other in February ( B747 ) and March ( Concorde ) of 1969. These two aircraft represented two different approaches to way passengers fly. Both marvels ahead of their time and both endure as freighters or museum pieces.
*image credit Quora / Google / creator
The B747 has written it’s own fantastic story over 54 years and is continuing to fly among the global fleet today, it’s Concorde that was jinx from the beginning.
The Concorde
From the moment the development project was announced in 1962 the Concorde has been the centre of controversy. Whether it was it’s highly noisy and smoky Snecma Olympus Engines or it’s sonic boom.
From over 100 orders to the final 14 sold to just two operators ( British Airways & Air France ) the national airlines of the countries that supported their development ( UK & France ).
What should have been a singular triumph ( in some ways it still is ) became an elitist way of travel and was ultimately restricted to just the scheduled routes of London / Paris – New York ( v v ). When Concorde was finally de registered ( grounded ) in 2003 the average number of cycles on each Concorde was only around 5000 cycles. The number an average B747 hit in about 5-7 years.
Today when we see them as museum pieces, we envision engineering at it’s best and can only imagine the Champagne based conversations on board.
Enter BOOM
BOOM’s big idea is to democratize Supersonic travel and towards that end they are engineering a completely new aircraft ( the basics don’t change )
The numbers speak a very familiar story. The big difference being weight. Advances in composite materials make the the Overture fast and at the same time very light. With 35 confirmed orders from United Airlines & American and multiple airlines showing interest. This might yet be the dawn of the second Supersonic age in passenger travel.
Points to mention
- BOOM Symphony engines will use only SAF ( Sustainable Aviation Fuel )
- The increased range gives it reach where Concorde missed out..also makes a case for even more increased range
- The Tourism market is completely different now what it was in 2003 when Concorde retired and this can be a huge difference ( Ex : In 2000 there were only 470 billionaires in the World and today we have almost 2500 , this highlights the GDP growth and growing incomes globally to afford what could be the equivalent of a First Class ticket)
- A clear focus on the environment across all parameters takes out all the opposition that Concorde had
- With over 35 orders firmed up most of them from United and American maybe it’s the dawn of the Supersonic age on Commercial America Aviation
What we see is the world was not ready for Concorde and when the BOOM – Overture flies…will be welcomed with open arms!
The development of the Overture can spawn a completely fresh direction in passenger travel. This is why projects such as this are important.
Go BOOM!!
