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There were over 100 orders for the Concorde in the 1960s and when the first prototype was flying this already went down to 74, but most of them were canceled, s
by tehabe 9y ago
There were over 100 orders for the Concorde in the 1960s and when the first prototype was flying this already went down to 74, but most of them were canceled, so only 14 commercial planes were ever build. I would be sceptical about this project.
- k__ 9y agoI once read they had serious overheating problems.
- madaxe_again 9y agoThey had serious problems, period. As you say, one major problem was that the aircraft skin got really hot from friction - hot enough that they had to build it out of a special titanium alloy, and paint it with heat resistant paint - but that was inadequate. Due to the heating and cooling that occurred each cycle the entire airframe would expand and contract very substantially - over repeat cycles this lead to metal fatigue, and would lead to failure but not for incessant expensive maintenance. For an idea of how much the thing expands, on the final flight of the model now at RNAS Yeovilton, the flight engineer stuck his cap between the engineering console and the bulkhead, where it remains sandwiched by pressure today. Apart from the thermal issues, the entire craft suffered from “so cutting edge it barely works” all over, from special tyre compounds to window seals to the famous drop nose. It was an engineering marvel and nightmare, in one improbable package. It’s frankly surprising it even ever existed. I think the major difference will be that Concorde was a space age plane built with 60’s tech, and these will Be space age planes built with space age tech.
- cb283 9y agoWhat concretely is the new space age tech?
- njarboe 9y agoCarbon fiber composite materials and supersonic computer modeling would be two.
- fnwx17 9y agoConcorde pulled off supersonic travel with plane designed on physical pieces of papers, with pencils and rectangles. SpaceX has like 9 or so failed landings until they pulled it off. If Boom keep iterating fast enough, I think they have a good chance of being successful.
- TazeTSchnitzel 9y ago> space age plane built with 60’s tech Wasn't the 60's the space age, though? :)
- NotSammyHagar 9y agoWe're living in the age of idiocracy.
- k__ 9y agoWas it? I have the feeling much of the tech of the last century was too much for the people living at the time. Yes, they found out about fusion and fission, but there are no viable fusion reactors out there and even the fission ones are highly problematic. Yes, they build super sonic planes but they barely held together or did cost a fortune. Yes, the send people to space, but how many and at what price? We even had super computers and main frames, but it took half a century to get this tech in every home AND then some time to get it in everyones pocket. Last century was more of a industrial mass market thing. The stuff from the 1800 was finally available for the rest of us. The whole high tech stuff was discovered at the time but it wasn't really usable, even if it was still used, see concord or fission based power plants. On the other hand, the risk we took for the power plants was probably set off by getting electricity to everyone and allowing the industrial age tech to work more wide spread. Anyway, I think we are in more of a space age now than we were back in the days.
- oblio 9y agoNow just wait for 2 billion+ people to actually get working on our future problems. Say what you will about China and India industrializing, but if we manage to transition fast enough to renewables, having so many middle class people will have a huge impact on the world history, more than anyone is expecting right now, I think.
- retSava 9y agoFun thing: the SR-71 is built as well to cope with massive expansion once up to speed, so much so it is leaking all over the place when groundborne.
- dotancohen 9y agoIf you don't think that 60's tech is space age tech, then you might do good to DDG the Apollo program! Seriously, I understand that you meant "space age" as "contemporary" but in fact, the term _should_ still refer to the age in which it was coined and represents the big leaps and bounds in the eponymous technology.
- avar 9y agoIt can mean any number of things depending on the contract. An order could be everything from a a vague deceleration of interest, to an obligation to buy the plane at a set price given that it meets some criteria. The article doesn't say which it is, or if it's anything in-between.