The world's passenger aircraft are mainly controlled by Boeing and Airbus. Domestic commercial aircraft have just entered the market. Russia, another established aviation power, is not willing to be marginalized and plans to develop supersonic passenger aircraft that can fly at Mach 2. "Technology Circle·Russia" reported that the Russian National Research Center Zhukovsky Research Institute revealed that it will develop a supersonic passenger aircraft code-named Swift.The cruising speed reaches Mach 2-2.1, which is 2,500 kilometers per hour, and the range can reach 8,500 kilometers.
The institute stated that it plans to achieve the first flight of the prototype in 2029, and mass production aircraft with commercial operation capabilities will not be available until 2035. However, the prerequisite for this is to obtain sufficient research and development funds.
Supersonic passenger planes are not new in history. The United States and Europe have developed such passenger planes. Europe also successfully operated the Concorde supersonic passenger plane, but it stopped operating as early as 2003. The 27 years of operation is already a miracle.
Russia's Tupolev Design Bureau had previously developed the Tu-144 passenger aircraft, which competed with the Concorde. The test flight was even several months earlier than the latter - the Tu-144 completed its 37-minute first test flight on December 31, 1968, while the Concorde only flew for the first time on March 2, 1969.
However, there are several problems that are difficult to solve after the operation of supersonic passenger aircraft.First of all, the cost is high, this is true from research and development to operations. Airlines cannot sustain it. If prices increase too much, there will be no customers.
Another major problem is sonic boom. Noise is a serious challenge after exceeding the speed of sound. The noise from takeoff to landing can reach 110-120 decibels. For airports, if this is not solved, it will also be a problem that interferes with operations.
In short, supersonic passenger aircraft were developed more than 50 years ago, but there is no good way to solve the cost and technical challenges.Unless the new generation of aircraft engines can make qualitative changes, otherwise there will be no future for commercially operated supersonic passenger aircraft.
