A replacement for Concorcde one day?

[piperarcher]

Hi

Just saw this on the BBC. As someone who would dearly love to see a Concorde take flight once more, and was sad at the loss of supersonic flight (not that I ever got the chance to go on it), it was interesting to read that work is still being done in this field. It's interesting that although the previous test run 'failed', that it actually reached Mach5.

BBC News - WaveRider hypersonic jet targets Mach 6

PiperArcher

[Tay Cough]

There are two practical options to replace Concorde in reality. One is a Gulfstream 5 sized biz-jet such as Aerion. The other would need to be about 777 capacity with trans-Pacific range to begin to make the economics viable. We may see the first one relatively soon if they find suitable investment. Don't hold your breath for the second one.

I doubt a waverider will be viable for that although I should think the military will find a use for it.

[piperarcher]

Thanks, I enjoyed watching the Aerion video on the website. I had seen some programs on the TV suggesting the next SST would be a bizjet. Concorde's traveller numbers declined for a number of reasons, but it would seem to me that only the very rich could really justify the cost of flying supersonically, and it was only be in small numbers now.

Maybe if I start saving now, I might be able to afford a ticker on an Aerion aircraft in 10 years time

PiperArcher

[BroomstickPilot]

Skylon

Hi piperarcher,

I suggest you also take a look at the Skylon being developed here in the UK by Reaction Engines Ltd.

Reaction Engines Limited

BP.

[Daysleeper]

The whole Wave Rider media froth is just silly. It will never spawn a "London to New York in an hour" aircraft... It's a weapon development program, nothing else.

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Concorde was magnificent, but it was a product of a different era. An era of confidence and belief in doing smart things for their own sake, not just because some bean counter says it will provide a financial return.

So we sent men to the moon and safely brought them back. And we built a superonic airliner that several times a day for 27 years flew the Atlantic at mach 2. It was a technical marvel - Russia and the US both attempted an SST, and failed. Of the 3, only Concorde was successful.

But they only built 14, so the cost per airframe was astronomical with no chance of ever being, overall, a commercial success.

But consider that no other aeroplane has ever crossed the Atlantic supersonic without in flight refuelling; Concorde did it many times a day for nearly 3 decades. G-BOAC even crossed the Atlantic 4 times in 24 hours. 1,350 mph with 100 pampered passengers drinking Champagne. Faster than a military fast jet, for up to 4 and a half hours, on the edge of space.

What an aeroplane! What an era!

[peterh337]

The SR71 did it nonstop, surely?

The USAF flew it to LHR once. I remember it.

That was another amazing machine

There is a definite market for a supersonic business jet, where fuel economy is not an issue, and a number of people around the world are seriously working on it.

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

SR71 didn't. It was refuelled. It was a rather crude aeroplane, though it has to be realised that Kelly Johnson had to throw something together quickly for the US spy plane program so not really comparable to the long development programme Concorde got. Many SR71s were lost, all through technical problems. Did you know it even had to dive to go supersonic? It couldn't overcome transonic drag in level flight! Concorde climbed through that phase of flight!

The US really should have used some Concordes to do the job the SR71 did. Sure, it was a Mach 2 aeroplane rather than Mach 3, but Mach 2 was fast enough not to get shot down (ask any Lighning pilot who tried to get a bead on it!). And it didn't need special fuels or have a leaky titanium airframe with unstart-prone engines (which caused mny of the SR71's losses).

[B Fraser]

The SR-71 required hundreds of man-hours of maintenance between flights. Concorde required fuel, food, booze and the loos emptying.

[Windy Militant]

Any one else notice the similarity between the Nose section of the X51 and the Zero-X? Derek Meddings was either able to visit the future or a lot of NASA boffins are Thunderbirds fans.
There's another similarity between them they both tend to crash, still being unmanned the X51 doesn't require the services of International rescue.

piperarcher if you do look at the Reaction Engines web site have a look at LAPCAT the hypersonic stratospheric airliner study using SCIMITAR a derivative of the SABRE engines they are developing for SKYLON.

[JEM60]

PeterH337. I think you may be mistaken about SR71 at LHR. Don't think it ever did.Certainly it went to Greenham Common, Farnborough, Fairford and Mildenhall. Why would it have gone to Heathrow when there are all these Military bases with appropriate facilities. Anyone know different?

[BroomstickPilot]

SR 71 at Farnborough

JEM60,

The SR 71 did indeed appear at Farnborough, but to the best of my recall, it didn't land there.

I saw it and it was the WOW! of the day. It crossed the Atlantic in about 1 hr 15 minutes and commenced its let down somewhere over Cornwall in the extreme West of England!

Presumably, after its appearance, it will have proceeded on to some US air base that would have had the necessary security and support facilities.

Regards,

BP.

[aviate1138]

The SR 71 did land at Farnborough [1974]. I and others were allowed to stand near it by the Black Sheds istr. Then it was put on display.

[Taildragger]

Unrefuelled across the pond

Not with 100 plus pax in the back it didn't.!! The SR71 carried 2 pilots plus a squeeze bottle for in flight catering. And as for loos.......luxury.!
So it is chalk and cheese.

[mike-wsm]

Broomstick

I've never really been convinced by Skylon, the engines are fiendishly complicated to build and maintain, whilst having them on the wingtips seems to invoke all sorts of problems.

The name is piched from the Skylon at the 1951 Festival of Britain.

[UV]

Err.. didnt the test fail last Tuesday? Mach 5 was last year.

Hypersonic flight X51A Waverider crash probed by military