NASA's experimental supersonic jet edges toward first flight | Digital Trends

kae@lemmy.ca to Technology@beehaw.org – 18 points –
NASA's experimental supersonic jet edges toward first flight | Digital Trends
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The ground noise is expected to be around 60 dB(A), about 1/1000 as loud as current supersonic aircraft. This is achieved by using a long, narrow airframe and canards to keep the shock waves from coalescing.[4] It should create a 75 Perceived Level decibel (PLdB) thump on ground, as loud as closing a car door, compared with 105-110 PLdB for the Concorde.[5] Wikipedia

Cool. A car door closing is far more acceptable than thinking you're being bombed. But yeah, the nose on it is really long. Considering that this experimental craft can only carry a pilot, any kind of passenger craft using the same technique would have to be absolutely enormous.

I don't know. It's long and skinny so I image if it was scaled up you could fit one or two columns of seats in there no problem.

Mandatory reminder that burning 10x the fuel to cut a few hours off a flight is insane in our present climate predicament.