1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 OBJECTIVE The objective of this report is to give an insight into the world of supersonic flight in hopes that students and lecturers attending the annual, week-long “Learning and Sharing Festival” will educate themselves more about supersonic planes.
1.2 SCOPE
This report discusses the design features and the functions of a general supersonic aircraft. It will also cover advantages and disadvantages, the target users and the possible recommendations to such technology.
1.3 BACKGROUND
FIGURE 1: BELL X-1 Plane( NASA, 2014 )
Just at the start of the Cold War era, an ambitious and decorated pilot, Charles Elwood Yeager, a test pilot, was chosen by the National Advisory Committee …show more content…
The real question is, which factor outweighs the other, the advantage, or the disadvantage?
This section will cover and summarise both these arguments.
3.1 ADVANTAGES
The obvious advantage of supersonic flight over subsonic flight is the travelling time. Considering the taxiing time on the runway, the climb-rate of an aircraft and its speed over distance, it is safe to say that a subsonic plane will take longer. To put this in perspective, consider a subsonic aircraft A and supersonic aircraft B. Both these aircrafts travel from New York to London. Subsonic aircraft A on average will take 7 Hours and 5 minutes. Whereas, Supersonic aircraft B is able to finish that trip in an average time of 3 Hours and 30 Minutes considering it flies at Mach 2. Travel time is considerably cut.
The other advantage, is the least recognised. Incorporation of supersonic aircraft in present day aviation fleet will increase the funding for supersonic programmes. This will result in a huge number of researches, aimed at providing a more fuel-efficient turbo-ramjet. This will enable us to further improve the technologies utilised in the automotive industry,
1.1 OBJECTIVE The objective of this report is to give an insight into the world of supersonic flight in hopes that students and lecturers attending the annual, week-long “Learning and Sharing Festival” will educate themselves more about supersonic planes.
1.2 SCOPE
This report discusses the design features and the functions of a general supersonic aircraft. It will also cover advantages and disadvantages, the target users and the possible recommendations to such technology.
1.3 BACKGROUND
FIGURE 1: BELL X-1 Plane( NASA, 2014 )
Just at the start of the Cold War era, an ambitious and decorated pilot, Charles Elwood Yeager, a test pilot, was chosen by the National Advisory Committee …show more content…
The real question is, which factor outweighs the other, the advantage, or the disadvantage?
This section will cover and summarise both these arguments.
3.1 ADVANTAGES
The obvious advantage of supersonic flight over subsonic flight is the travelling time. Considering the taxiing time on the runway, the climb-rate of an aircraft and its speed over distance, it is safe to say that a subsonic plane will take longer. To put this in perspective, consider a subsonic aircraft A and supersonic aircraft B. Both these aircrafts travel from New York to London. Subsonic aircraft A on average will take 7 Hours and 5 minutes. Whereas, Supersonic aircraft B is able to finish that trip in an average time of 3 Hours and 30 Minutes considering it flies at Mach 2. Travel time is considerably cut.
The other advantage, is the least recognised. Incorporation of supersonic aircraft in present day aviation fleet will increase the funding for supersonic programmes. This will result in a huge number of researches, aimed at providing a more fuel-efficient turbo-ramjet. This will enable us to further improve the technologies utilised in the automotive industry,