Race to build supersonic airliner

The race is on to build a supersonic passenger jet to replace Concorde which was withdrawn from service 13 years ago. In the US, NASA selected a team led by Lockheed Martin to complete a preliminary design for the QueSST X-plane. The aim is to develop a way for an aircraft to fly faster than sound without causing a loud sonic boom. QueSST is designed to fly at Mach 1.4, at a height of 55,000 feet. The aircraft is shaped to separate the shocks generated by air pressure. It is planned to produce a small 'thump' noise which technicians refer to as a 'heartbeat'. Sir Richard Branson has ordered 10 planes being built by a company he has backed, called Boom Technologies. The business says it already has 76 orders for the aircraft which will carry 40 -50 passengers at up to twice the speed of sound. It expects the planes to be operational within six years. In the UK. Oxfordshire firm, Reaction Engines has been developing a turbine that combines both jet and rocket technologies to achieve a propulsion rate of five times the speed of sound. But it is likely to take a decade or more to develop aircraft to suit the engines.The British Governmernt is partly funding the development Australia is also in the mix with Queensland University's Centre for Hypersonics running an $8.5 million scramjet project aiming to build an engine capable of 8 times the speed of sound. If successful it is likely to be in military use decades before it can power commercial aircraft.

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