In this day and age, travelling by air is almost as common as travelling by car a couple of decades ago. With advancements in safety and comfort, airplanes of today come in many shapes and sizes.
Flying twice the speed of sound
Some of you may remember the iconic Concorde airplane, which once made the transatlantic journey between New York and London in just 3 hours. The aircraft had a take-off speed of 250mph and a cruising speed of 1,350mph – more than twice the speed of sound. Its landing speed was 187mph.
Concorde could fly up to 60,000ft (over 11 miles) from where – at the edge of space in the layers between the stratosphere and the ionosphere – passengers could actually see the curvature of the Earth!
Due to the intense heat of the airframe, every surface, even the windows, was warm to the touch by the end of the flight.
Luxury in the air
The aircraft seated 100 passengers – 40 in the front cabin and 60 in the rear cabin – with a crew of nine: two pilots, one flight engineer and a cabin crew of six. During the aircraft’s first commercial flight in 1976, passengers were served caviar and lobster canapes, with Dom Perignon 1969 champagne, and offered Havana cigars.
There was even a planned route from London to Singapore via Bahrain, operated in conjunction with Singapore Airlines. However, it was cancelled after just three return flights due to complains about noise disturbances caused by the aircraft’s sonic boom. In particular, Saudi Arabia complained that it disrupted camel mating.
Sadly, due to the sky-high costs (fares between London and New York cost over £1,000 by the 1980s), it was decommissioned after its final flight from New York to Heathrow on October 24, 2003.
Only 14 different Concorde aircraft ever flew commercially, carrying out just under 50,000 flights during their lifespan.
The Return of Supersonic Flight?
While efforts to revitalise Concorde continue, a number of other companies are seeking to relaunch commercial supersonic flights.
One of them is Airbus’ plans for “Concorde Mark 2”, a supersonic jet that could fly from London to New York in one hour, travelling at four times the speed of sound (more than 2,500mph).
Another is Boston-based Spike Aerospace, whose proposed Spike S-512 supersonic jet can reach speeds of Mach 1.6 (1,100mph) and could be airborne by early 2020s. However, in order to minimise drag and weight, the aircraft plans to do away with windows. Instead, the interior walls will be covered with electronic screens to transmit footage of the outside.
Perhaps the most viable option so far is Virgin Galactic. Later this year, it will be conducting initial test-flights of its newly-christened prototype, the “Baby Boom” – which when it launches in 2023 would be the first supersonic commercial passenger jet since the end of the fabled Concorde era in 2003.
Travelling three times the speed of a normal plane, it will cross the Atlantic from London to New York in just 3 hours. It’s still not cheap; one-way fares are expected to start from SGD$4,500/person. Still, it beats the 7-8 hour ride today.
