3 ms·
This will happen. One of the reasons the Concorde never really succeeded was due to the nature of faster than sound travel. A sonic boom doesn't just happen as
by jballanc 15y ago
This will happen.
One of the reasons the Concorde never really succeeded was due to the nature of faster than sound travel. A sonic boom doesn't just happen as you pass the sound barrier, but rather trails behind an aircraft the entire time it is traveling over that critical speed. This resulted in the Concorde only being able to travel faster than the speed of sound when it was over water (hence it's primary use for travel between New York and Paris or London).
But what if you could travel where there is no air?
Suborbital space flight means that any place on the globe is a 2 hour flight away. This will happen, and I am confident that I will travel in space before I die.
- lotharbot 15y agoOne of the other reasons Concorde never really succeeded was due to the other part of the nature of faster than sound travel: it uses a huge amount of fuel, which is a major expense. For comparison, the 747-100 (which made its first flight just before Concorde's) used perhaps 1.1 times more fuel to cross the Atlantic but carried about 4 times as many passengers. Suborbital space flight means any place on the globe is a 2 hour flight away, but the fuel costs are pretty high. I expect such a service to one day exist, but I don't expect to be able to afford it.
- cinquemb 15y agoyeah we need a new way of powering our ships. for it to be affordable. the only cheap and responsible way i think would be to use solar thermal power and use molten salt storage onboard.
- DanBC 15y agoThorium nuclear reactors are weirdly underdeveloped. There are lots of advantages to them, so it's a shame that we're so behind with them.