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NASA Building ‘Supersonic’ Plane Which Flies London To New York In 3 Hours

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nasa supersonic planeNASA

Unless you are travelling business class, long-haul flights are the worst – spending eight hours plus in stuffy cabins isn’t exactly comfortable.

Luckily for us then NASA are coming to our rescue with a new supersonic plane that could travel from London to New York in just three hours.

Lockhead Martin, a global aerospace and defence company, have just begun building the plane with the American space agency which could pave the way to a new era of travel.

nasa supersonic planeNASA

Dubbed the ‘son of Concorde’, the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology aircraft not only is quicker, travelling at speeds of 1,100 miles per hour, but it is also quieter as it looks to produce a quiet sonic boom when it breaks the sound barrier.

On their website, Lockhead Martin describes starting work on the plane as ‘marking a milestone to bring supersonic commercial travel over land one step closer to reality’.

Peter Iosifidis, Low Boom Flight Demonstrator program manager Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, added:

The start of manufacturing on the project marks a great leap forward for the X-59 and the future of quiet supersonic commercial travel.

The long, slender design of the aircraft is the key to achieving a low sonic boom. As we enter into the manufacturing phase, the aircraft structure begins to take shape, bringing us one step closer to enabling supersonic travel for passengers around the world.

NASA’s proposals were approved in a proposed US budget that was released earlier this year by the Office Of Management And Budget in Washington, DC.

In total the space agency was awarded $19.9 billion (£14.3 billion) as their spending budget for next year; $500 million (£360m) more than they were given in 2018.

The report states:

The Budget continues strong programs in science and aeronautics, including a supersonic X-plane, planetary defence from hazardous asteroids, and potentially a bold mission to retrieve pieces of Mars for scientific study on Earth.

As it pioneers the space frontier, NASA supports growth of the Nation’s space economy, increases understanding of the universe and America’s place in it, and advances America’s aerospace technology.

The Budget fully funds the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, an experimental supersonic (faster than the speed of sound) airplane that would make its first flight in 2021.

NasaPixabay

It continues:

This ‘X-plane’ would open a new market for US companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half.

The Budget also increases funding for research on flight at speeds more than five times the speed of sound, commonly referred to as hypersonics.

Hypersonics research is critical to understanding how crewed and robotic spacecraft can safely enter and exit the atmospheres of planets. Hypersonics also has applications for national defence.

Although it is not known exactly what proportion of this will be spent on the supersonic plane, late last year NASA said it was ready to take bids to raise the £287 million needed to construct a demonstration aircraft.

According to plans, the plane should make its first flight in 2021.

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