5 ms·

> over water All the imagined routes are over large bodies of water. Is it key to the functionality or intent of the aircraft in some way? Why not NYC to LAX i

by awb 4y ago

> over water All the imagined routes are over large bodies of water. Is it key to the functionality or intent of the aircraft in some way? Why not NYC to LAX in 3 hours?

eloff 4y ago
Because of the sonic boom, you can't be flying over inhabited areas. Regulations prohibit that.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
gibolt 4y ago
Supersonic booms are extremely loud. Without solving that problem, these can not be flown over populated areas.
ropiku 4y ago
Due to noise constraints supersonic flight is banned over land right now. If they lower noise pollution maybe laws will be changed.
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
I believe supersonic flight is currently banned over the USA (and most countries?). A previous entrtant in this area seemed to suggest that efficiency dropped near mach 1, but then rose again to 95% at speeds around 1.4 so being able to stay at that speed may make it cheaper to run and maximize their USP of speed.
extrapickles 4y ago
It’s currently illegal to fly past Mach 1 over land barring a few exceptions (eg: military training areas). https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/supersonic-flight https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/supersonic-flight
hadlock 4y ago
When space shuttle Challenger broke up over Dallas, Texas about 20 years ago it came in really low (steep angle of attack) and there was a sonic boom, felt like a garbage truck had driven into the side of the house at full speed. Woke me up from sleep at about 6am. Got out of bed to see what was going on, turned on the TV to find out it was the space shuttle. People will tolerate a sonic boom once a quarter or so, but you've better have a really good reason, like national security.
- danans 4y ago
  > When space shuttle Challenger broke up over Dallas, Texas That was Columbia, not Challenger. Challenger exploded on launch from Cape Canaveral.
theptip 4y ago
Something I didn’t know about the sonic boom until discussions of this company is that it is continuous, not just at the point the plane passes the speed of sound. So a plane like this is constantly dragging a cone producing very loud noise behind it.
_gu8l 4y ago
A bunch of replies say that wouldn’t be allowed, but I heard sonic booms regularly while living near an Air Force Base in California. It didn’t seem to affect the hundreds of thousands of residents nearby. Is there an actual reason why we can’t have one every day at 10am or on some other regular schedule?
- 650REDHAIR 4y ago
  I imagine because it’s a lot harder to successfully sue the USAF.
- jameshart 4y ago
  If you heard USAF sonic booms, they were probably over 15 miles offshore, or 15 miles inside an Air Force training range. They were probably not directly over your house. A crosscountry scheduled supersonic flight will have to overfly populated areas twice a day - booming all the way. (Something that causes a lot of confusion - people often think a sonic boom is an instantaneous thing that happens when the plane breaks the sound barrier - it is not, it’s a continuous shockwave that travels with the aircraft while it is flying above Mach 1; anyone on the ground who the shockwave passes over along the flight path hears a sonic boom) If you’ve ever heard thunder from lightning 15 miles away compared to thunder directly overhead, that might give you some framework for figuring out the difference.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  It really depends on where the sounds were generated, in my experience. Off shore sonic booms are loud, but fairly tolerable by the time the sound makes it to the beach. But I once heard two fighters go supersonic directly overhead in eastern Washington (they were pretty high up, even so) and the booms sounded like someone tried to bash in the front of the house. Not something you'd tolerate with any regularity.
- _ph_ 4y ago
  I remember growing up during the cold war in western Germany which was formally under the control of the allied forces. So they were allowed to go supersonic with the military jet aircraft and frequetly did so, even in rather populated areas (by German standards - in general, Germany is much denser populated than the US). It was a bit annoying but definitely survivable (here I still am). I think it was a mistake for the US to ban supersonic flight outright and especially at all altitudes. I can't imagine a sonic boom being a huge problem, if you are 10 miles up or higher.
jandrese 4y ago
There has been some research in trying to minimize or at least spread out sonic booms by changing aircraft shapes and engine dynamics, but as far as I know they're all still experimental. Boom is going to live up to its name if it ever actually flies, which means staying over the water whenever they are operating in the supersonic regime.

by awb 4y ago

> over water All the imagined routes are over large bodies of water. Is it key to the functionality or intent of the aircraft in some way? Why not NYC to LAX in 3 hours?

eloff 4y ago

Because of the sonic boom, you can't be flying over inhabited areas. Regulations prohibit that.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

gibolt 4y ago

Supersonic booms are extremely loud. Without solving that problem, these can not be flown over populated areas.

ropiku 4y ago

Due to noise constraints supersonic flight is banned over land right now. If they lower noise pollution maybe laws will be changed.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

I believe supersonic flight is currently banned over the USA (and most countries?). A previous entrtant in this area seemed to suggest that efficiency dropped near mach 1, but then rose again to 95% at speeds around 1.4 so being able to stay at that speed may make it cheaper to run and maximize their USP of speed.

extrapickles 4y ago

It’s currently illegal to fly past Mach 1 over land barring a few exceptions (eg: military training areas). https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/supersonic-flight https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/supersonic-flight

hadlock 4y ago

When space shuttle Challenger broke up over Dallas, Texas about 20 years ago it came in really low (steep angle of attack) and there was a sonic boom, felt like a garbage truck had driven into the side of the house at full speed. Woke me up from sleep at about 6am. Got out of bed to see what was going on, turned on the TV to find out it was the space shuttle. People will tolerate a sonic boom once a quarter or so, but you've better have a really good reason, like national security.

danans 4y ago
> When space shuttle Challenger broke up over Dallas, Texas That was Columbia, not Challenger. Challenger exploded on launch from Cape Canaveral.

theptip 4y ago

Something I didn’t know about the sonic boom until discussions of this company is that it is continuous, not just at the point the plane passes the speed of sound. So a plane like this is constantly dragging a cone producing very loud noise behind it.

_gu8l 4y ago

A bunch of replies say that wouldn’t be allowed, but I heard sonic booms regularly while living near an Air Force Base in California. It didn’t seem to affect the hundreds of thousands of residents nearby. Is there an actual reason why we can’t have one every day at 10am or on some other regular schedule?

650REDHAIR 4y ago
I imagine because it’s a lot harder to successfully sue the USAF.
jameshart 4y ago
If you heard USAF sonic booms, they were probably over 15 miles offshore, or 15 miles inside an Air Force training range. They were probably not directly over your house. A crosscountry scheduled supersonic flight will have to overfly populated areas twice a day - booming all the way. (Something that causes a lot of confusion - people often think a sonic boom is an instantaneous thing that happens when the plane breaks the sound barrier - it is not, it’s a continuous shockwave that travels with the aircraft while it is flying above Mach 1; anyone on the ground who the shockwave passes over along the flight path hears a sonic boom) If you’ve ever heard thunder from lightning 15 miles away compared to thunder directly overhead, that might give you some framework for figuring out the difference.
rootusrootus 4y ago
It really depends on where the sounds were generated, in my experience. Off shore sonic booms are loud, but fairly tolerable by the time the sound makes it to the beach. But I once heard two fighters go supersonic directly overhead in eastern Washington (they were pretty high up, even so) and the booms sounded like someone tried to bash in the front of the house. Not something you'd tolerate with any regularity.
_ph_ 4y ago
I remember growing up during the cold war in western Germany which was formally under the control of the allied forces. So they were allowed to go supersonic with the military jet aircraft and frequetly did so, even in rather populated areas (by German standards - in general, Germany is much denser populated than the US). It was a bit annoying but definitely survivable (here I still am). I think it was a mistake for the US to ban supersonic flight outright and especially at all altitudes. I can't imagine a sonic boom being a huge problem, if you are 10 miles up or higher.

jandrese 4y ago

There has been some research in trying to minimize or at least spread out sonic booms by changing aircraft shapes and engine dynamics, but as far as I know they're all still experimental. Boom is going to live up to its name if it ever actually flies, which means staying over the water whenever they are operating in the supersonic regime.