Quartz Media by Leslie Josephs 8/16/2017
Given the current state of commercial air travel, any effort to get the flight over with more quickly could be considered noble.
Supersonic flight is the obvious answer. That technology isn’t even new. The Concorde’s maiden flight was in 1969, and service ended in 2003.
Getting a plane to fly faster than the speed of sound isn’t the problem—it’s quieting the thunderous sonic boom that’s heard on the ground. In 1973, the US government banned overland commercial supersonic flights.
Now NASA and Lockheed Martin think they have a winning design for a quieter supersonic jet, one that will create a hum similar to that of an air conditioner below the flight’s path.
The Concorde, whose last flight was in 2003 due to economic problems following a fatal crash three years earlier, was propelled to a cruising speed of about 1,350 miles per hour with four Rolls-Royce engines. NASA and Lockheed, however, realize the supersonic jet of the future needed to be scaled down. They rethought the design, which they liken to that of a paper airplane, and choose a single engine.
More:
https://qz.com/1049339/the-physics-behind-nasas-and-lockheed-martins-quiet-supersonic-jet-design/?utm_source=YPL&yptr=yahoo
