4 ms·
Hmm I wonder. A modern Concorde might be more spacious and better pressurised but much faster than Mach 2 is going to be very difficult due to higher speeds nee
by wkat4242 3y ago
Hmm I wonder. A modern Concorde might be more spacious and better pressurised but much faster than Mach 2 is going to be very difficult due to higher speeds needing incrementally more energy and generating more heat.
Supercruising at Mach 2 is a huge accomplishment and I don't think there's any aircraft in operation that can still do that. Jetfighters can do it while afterburning but it is impossible to reach Singapore that way.
I just don't see a supercruising aircraft being possible at Mach 3.
- KptMarchewa 3y agoThe speed gains would be due to lack of stopovers, assuming higher range, not due to higher airspeed.
- wkat4242 3y agoAh I see. True, a lot of advancements have been made in fuel efficiency indeed. Sorry I misunderstood your comment.
- tengwar2 3y agoI'm not clear what you mean by "better pressurised"? If you mean the cabin altitude, one of the advantages of Concorde was that the cabin had a lower cabin altitude than other airliners, then or now. Concorde cruising supersonic on dry power was apparently due to the variable intake ramps (https://www.heritageconcorde.com/air-in-take-system https://www.heritageconcorde.com/air-in-take-system), which presented compressed subsonic air to the compressors at supersonic speeds, bypassing excess air. This reduced the work that the compressors had to do, avoiding the surge issues with the J-58 which the A-12 family of aircraft ran in to. There is probably a bit of stretch there, as Concorde was limited by airframe temperature, but the temperature of the compressed intake would probably be the next limitation. As far as I know, Concorde was the only supersonic-native aircraft, with best range being achieved at M1.4.