Coincidentally, this has just appeared on AP.
BOEING STUDIES BLUEPRINT FOR SUPER-FAST PASSENGER JET
Boeing - the US company that developed the world’s fastest jetliner - is looking at a new commercial plane that could fly at nearly the speed of sound.
Boeing spokeswoman Barbara Murphy confirmed that the company was studying the concept, referred to internally as “Yellowstone”, but would not give specifics. No decision has been made on whether to actually develop the aircraft.
The Wall Street Journal, quoting unidentified sources, reported that the jet would be capable of travelling at Mach 0.95 - Mach 1 is the speed of sound.
The jet would carry 200 to 300 people as far as 6,100 nautical miles, similar to Boeing’s two-engine 767s, the Journal said.
The fastest subsonic commercial jet is Boeing’s 747-400, which can fly at Mach 0.92 but cruises at Mach 0.85, or more than 500 mph.
The Concorde supersonic jet can fly twice the speed of sound and crosses the Atlantic at 1,350 mph. The Anglo-French plane has been grounded since an Air France Concorde crashed on July 25, killing all 109 people on board and four people on the ground.
Murphy said Seattle-based Boeing constantly studied new designs and materials for possible future use under its 20XX program.
She said Yellowstone was part of the 20XX and the P-2 research programmes. P-2 refers to a design that looks similar to Boeing’s 777 twin-engine wide body, but could be any size from a 100 to a 600-passenger jet and includes many configurations, she said.
Boeing has long studied a possible new supersonic transport, but breakthroughs in materials and engine performance need to be made for the aircraft to be economically practical, she said.
“We do not see, at this point, anything on the horizon that is going to change this problem with faster speed and poorer economics,” Murphy said.
Murphy noted that improvements for the proposed 747X family, which would compete with the recently launched Airbus Industries 555-passenger A380 jet, would allow it to cruise at Mach 0.86. So far, Boeing has not received any orders for the 747X. Such tiny increments are important, especially on long-range aircraft, since they allow more efficient, economical flights.
In 1966, Boeing won money from the government to develop the SST, or the Supersonic Transport, which was expected to become the American equivalent to the Concorde, said Boeing historian Mike Lombardi. However, the project was cancelled in 1971 due to costs and objections over possible environmental impact, he said.
Lombardi said Boeing had continued to study travelling at supersonic speed. Until three years ago, the company worked with Nasa on the High Speed Civil Transport programme. The program ended, he said, because “they found that the planes wouldn’t be economical to operate, and they still had to overcome the hurdle of a sonic boom”.