This is only an artist's impression, but tomorrow they are going to be launching something like this in the Australian desert, if conditions are right (wind might prevent it). I guess tomorrow's launch is a proof-of-concept because they are only going to launch a 36-foot-long model of it, but...
Engineered by the Japanese, it's a passenger jet. It's called the "X1", after the jet that Chuck Yeager test-piloted past the speed of sound. They hope it will fly faster than the Concorde, hold three times as many passengers, travel twice the Concorde's range, and be roughly half as loud. They think it will pollute less than conventional jets, and hijackers will be automatically ejected through a special trapdoor in the tail.
No just kidding on that last bit.
The noise level is important, because the Concorde is limited to where it can take off and land because of its supersonic boom. I think the idea here is to launch the vehicle well into space, and allow it to get help from gravity, speedily flying down to where it will land.
It's all the result of applying new materials science and computer modeling of flight. But even in the best-case scenario, they don't expect an actual passenger jet to come out of this approach for another ten years at least.
07-10-2002, 09:10 AM
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