At the peak of the supersonic era, passenger jets raced across the sky at over twice the
speed of sound. While today we have to settle for cruising speeds just over 1,000 km/h,
one company intends to break the sound barrier with passengers within five years. And if
Boeing’s R&D department has its way, by 2050 planes will do London to New York in
as little as two hours.
While there seems to be some discussion as to which supersonic commercial aircraft was
actually the fastest, the generally accepted figures put the Soviet-built Tupolev TU-144
ahead of the Concorde. The TU-144 first took flight on New Year’s
Eve 1968, a few months before the Concorde. It had a maximum speed of Mach 2.29 (2,430
km/h) but tended to average around Mach 1.6. The aircraft was retired from passenger service
in 1978, just a year after performing its first passenger flight for Aeroflot. By then,
it had completed only 55 passenger flights, but was also involved in two fatal accidents.
One occurred at the Paris Air Show in 1973, the cause of which is still unknown. The other
happened during a test flight in Russia in 1978, due to a ruptured fuel line. The latter
was the main reason for the plane being deemed as unsafe for passenger travel.
It did remain active beyond passenger service to train pilots of the Buran space shuttle,
and as a research aircraft for NASA on high-altitude atmosphere radiological conditions. The TU-144
conducted its final flight in June 1999.
Its supersonic rival, the legendary British-French Concorde, had a much longer life-span as a
commercial passenger plane. Entering service in January 1976, it had a top speed of Mach
2.04 (2,180 km/h) at cruise altitude. It exited in 2003, having had one fatal accident three
years prior just after taking off from Paris-Charles de Gaulle.
The two supersonic aircraft once available to passengers are not in service anymore.
So what are the subsonic heroes of today? Well, the fastest passenger aircraft in service
today is the Boeing 747-8i, also known as the 747-8 Intercontinental. This model of
the Queen of the Skies has a top speed of Mach 0.86. Unfortunately, it is not that easy
to catch a ride on one as she is only in passenger service with three airlines – Lufthansa,
Korean Air, and Air China. Its sibling, the 747-400 clocks in at Mach
0.855, making it the second-fastest passenger jet still flying.
The Airbus A380 and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner share third spot, with a cruising speed of
Mach 0.85. The 777 falls just short, with Mach 0.84.
But all that may soon change... Boom Technology, an American start-up company,
is hoping to revive supersonic passenger travel. Its much-anticipated XB-1 demonstrator will
roll out in October 2020, with its first flight scheduled to take place in 2021.
This jet is supposed to be a one-third sized version of the actual plane. This is set to
be introduced in 2025 and is called Overture. It will seat 55 passengers, and have a top
speed of Mach 2.2 (or 2335 km/h). Of course, it still won’t beat the Tu-144’s record
speed. Overture will be able to fly from Tokyo to
Seattle in 4 hours and 30 minutes. Or from Paris to Montreal in 3 hours and 45. It is
also designed as a trijet, meaning it has three engines (called ramjets) powering its
breakneck speed across the skies. The company says that its aircraft will make
supersonic air travel the new norm for anyone flying business class, with a seat-mile cost
similar to the same product on subsonic jets. Boeing has plans to create a passenger jet
faster than anything civilian aviation has ever seen. It would have a speed of five times
that of sound, or close to 6,000 km/h. This means a flight between London and New York
would take around two hours. Boeing hopes to have the aircraft in service sometime in
the late 2040s. Are you looking forward to the return of supersonic
passenger air travel? Let us know in the comments.