What we know about China's plans for a new supersonic jet that can fly 50% further than Concorde
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China has entered the race to usher in a new golden age of supersonic air travel with plans to build an airliner that will rival the Concorde, according to local media.
As per reporting by the South China Morning Post, China's Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has revealed blueprints for the C949 - a 1.6-Mach jet that could fly further and more quickly than the Concorde - in a recent academic paper.
The paper said the project looked to achieve a 50 per cent range boost over the Concorde and is designed to make the plane fly as quietly as the noise level of a hairdryer.
It will do this with a curved plane body that will weaken shockwaves to delay violent booms that could come from the aircraft, the SCMP report continued.
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Reducing the noise levels is a way for the plane to try and bypass regulatory barriers that ban supersonic flights, SCMP continued.
Euronews Next is trying to independently verify these claims by reaching out to the academic journal that published the findings as well as COMAC but has not received any replies at the time of publication.
Concorde flew just under 50,000 flights for carrier British Airline during its 26-year career.
Dave Caulin/AP
Other supersonic crafts in the works
The Concorde, an Anglo-French supersonic airliner that first took to the skies on a test flight in 1969, made just under 50,000 flights for carrier British Airways during its 26-year career.
The craft, with a maximum cruising speed of Mach 2.04 (around 2,180 km/h), boasted a flight time from London to New York of less than 3.5 hours instead of the regular 8 hours for a subsonic flight.
There hasn't been a non-military supersonic aircraft in service since Concorde's retirement in 2003 but there are other supersonic projects now in the works, like the X-59, a joint venture between the US Space Agency, NASA, and US-based manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
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The 'quiet' jet from NASA that could usher in a new era of supersonic air travel
Revealed last year, the aircraft flies at 55,000 feet (over 16,700 m) and produces sound equivalent to a car door closing, according to the jet's designers.
The X-59 is designed to travel at speeds of Mach 1.4 (around 1,730 km/h), slower than Concorde and the proposed Chinese C949.
In March, NASA announced that the X-59 successfully passed an engine speed hold, or cruise control test, a last step before a first flight that should happen later this year.
A mock-up of Boom's Overture aircraft in commercial service at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, France.
Boom Supersonic
"We needed to verify that speed hold worked not just within the engine itself but as part of the entire aircraft system," Paul Dees, NASA's X-59 deputy propulsion lead at the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center, said in a statement.
"This test confirmed that all components – software, mechanical linkages, and control laws – work together as intended".
Related
Bombardier unveils 'fastest passenger jet since the Concorde' following supersonic test
Private company Boom Supersonic wants to launch its supersonic jet, the Overture, before the end of the decade.
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In test craft XB-1's first test flight in
January
, the aircraft flew up to 1,207 km/h to an altitude of over 35,000 feet (10,600 m) and was able to land without a sonic boom, the company said.
There has already been commercial interest in the Overture, with Boom having already signed deals with
United Airlines
,
American Airlines, and Japan Airlines to deliver the aircraft once it meets the required safety standards.
The European Commission funded several projects to study noise reduction and the environmental impacts of supersonic flights, like the 2022 RUMBLE project, the 2020 SENECA project, and the ongoing MORE AND LESS project.
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France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Sails, batteries and AI: What a green revolution in maritime transport might look like
Over the weekend, it was time for the key players of the maritime industry – ship owners, port authorities and others – to meet in Monaco for the Blue Economy and Finance Forum, one of the many special events held on the sidelines of the June 9-13 United Nations Ocean Conference. The key goal of the meeting was to come up with a plan on how to decarbonise maritime transport. Because while the UN summit focuses on protecting the oceans, the many ships that cross them are also a big part of the problem. Today, the shipping sector accounts for around 3 percent of the world's CO2 emissions – almost the same amount as the aviation industry. In Europe, it is even worse, and accounts for 14.2 percent of transport-related greenhouse gases, and about 4 percent of all emissions. The reason for this is that most ships are powered by heavy fuel oil, a dirty by-product of oil refining and one of the worst offenders when it comes to pollution and greenhouse gases. Although international measures have helped reduce emissions for individual ships in the past few years, the growing number of freight vessels – the biggest polluters – means that total emissions still continue to climb. Net-zero by 2050: a huge challenge To come to terms with this, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set an ambitious target for the shipping industry of net-zero emissions by 2050. It is a huge challenge. 'Shipping is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonise,' said Pierre Marty, a maritime transport expert and lecturer at the French engineering school Centrale Nantes. 'For cars, the solution came quickly with the development of electric vehicles and batteries. For planes, the industry immediately went for synthetic kerosene. But it's harder for the shipping sector because there is no one-size-fits-all solution,' he said. From leisure yachts to bulk carriers and container ships, they all have different needs depending on their size, the distance they travel and how many port stops they do. 'What works for one ship might be useless for another,' Marty said, but noted they all have one common challenge: 'to meet high energy demands in the often limited space on board'. To make a real difference, he said, the focus needs to be on larger vessels. Although they only make up 25 percent of the global fleet, container ships, bulk carriers, LNG and chemical tankers account for around 80 percent of maritime CO2 emissions. They also often travel longer distances and use more energy. Electric ships? Among the many solutions that have been studied in recent years, electrification is one of the most promising so far. As with cars, it would involve equipping a ship with a battery that would be recharged when docked in port. 'This solution has already been adopted by some leisure boats and smaller container ships,' Fanny Pointet, head of maritime transport at the NGO Transport and Environment, said. 'But it's not at all adapted to long-distance vessels. You can't recharge batteries in the middle of the ocean,' she said. 'An intermediary and alternative solution would be to use the batteries just for moving in and out of ports,' she suggested. 'This would not only help reduce emissions, but also lower air pollution.' British-owned P&O Ferries is one of the companies that has already announced it is equipping its Dover-Calais ferries with hybrid engines for this purpose. Biofuels, LNG and synthetic fuels Another option is for vessels to switch to alternative fuels like biomethanol. In September, Danish shipping giant Maersk surprised the industry by presenting a 32,000-ton container ship (capable of carrying 2,100 containers) powered by biomethanol from forestry and agricultural waste. 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'Because even when ships are docked, many of them, like passenger ships, often need to keep their engines running to maintain services onboard.' The massive cost of going green But, both experts concluded, massive investments – to the tune of between $8 billion and $28 billion (€7.5 billion and €26 billion) a year – are needed until 2050 to embark on this green maritime revolution . And that is without counting the infrastructure that would be needed to make and distribute green fuels. To anticipate these massive costs, some 100 delegations brought together by the IMO in April agreed to create a global carbon pricing mechanism. According to the plan, all ships will as of 2028 have to meet CO2 emissions quotas by using cleaner fuels. Those who exceed the limits will be fined hundreds of euros per ton of CO2 emitted. According to researchers working at the shipping and ocean transport department at the University College of London, this measure alone could generate between $30-40 billion in revenues by 2030. But, Pointet warned, exemptions of various kinds could undermine the measure's impact. 'And there are still many other questions pending, especially [regarding] what kind of fuels will qualify as clean energy.' Before going into effect, the carbon pricing mechanism must be approved in a second IMO vote scheduled for October. That means that the industry heavyweights and oil-rich nations opposing the plan still have time to try to sink the deal.
Sustainability Times
2 hours ago
- Sustainability Times
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Detected within the heart of the Milky Way, this object has prompted a flurry of research, as experts strive to unravel its secrets and understand its implications for our understanding of the universe. A Celestial Phenomenon in the Heart of the Milky Way Located approximately 9,300 miles from Earth, this celestial object emits synchronized radio signals and X-rays every 44 minutes, a discovery that defies comprehension. A team of international astronomers made this observation using a combination of data from major NASA instruments and ground-based observatories. The Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope for infrared, and the South African MeerKAT radio telescope played pivotal roles in this groundbreaking discovery. The newly identified object, named ASKAP J1832−091, was detected during a month-long phase of intense activity. During this period, it emitted X-rays and radio waves in a synchronized manner, a behavior never before observed for this type of object. 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Fashion Network
2 hours ago
- Fashion Network
South African clothing retailers add stores as economic forecast weakens
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