Remember the Airport that aims to cut a New York to London flight down to 3.5 hours? Boom Technology said Tuesday that the jet has successfully passed a major milestone: a wind tunnel test.
Of course, humans couldn’t fit inside the plane used in the test. The aircraft looks like a 4-foot-long model airplane. But software simulation and technology advances “allow Boom to simulate the wind tunnel testing” of a larger aircraft, said Amanda Wiley, representing Boom.
“Previously, this phase of testing would require the manufacturing of an actual aircraft, which significantly slows down the testing phase. Boom’s wind tunnel tests measure lift, drag, stability, and ultimately demonstrate the flying characteristics of the airplane in low-speed situations like takeoff and landing,” she said.
Tests were conducted at the at Wichita State University. This moves Boom to the next stage: construction of large-scale hardware to begin testing with human pilots.
“The team is proceeding with the development of full-scale hardware now for flight by the end of 2017,” she said. “The team is on schedule.”
In November, Boom showed off a prototype of a supersonic passenger plane it wants to build that is expected to travel at Mach 2.2, or 2.2 times faster than the speed of sound. Thatap 1,451 mph. Boom hopes to be successful where the supersonic Concorde jet of the 1970s and 1980s was not.
Boom co-founder and CEO Blake Scholl said success will come from technological improvements in fuel efficiency, aerodynamics and carbon-fiber materials. But tweaking was necessary. The Boom jet, for example, will carry fewer passengers than the Concorde — 45, compared to 100 or more. The company predicts a New York to London flight will take 3 hours and 15 minutes and cost $5,000 round trip.
Boom has reservations for the first batch of planes. If all goes well, Boom’s passenger supersonic jet could fly its first paying customers in the 2020s.
To read the original story of Boom’s public launch, visit “.”