Are supersonic aeroplanes coming back?
| Aeroplane manufacturers are also looking into new materials and technologies to make planes lighter, more aerodynamic and more resistant to wear and tear. United Airlines thinks they can get to carbon neutrality while reintroducing supersonic flight (cen.acs.org, n.d). However, there has been some debate if the use of a supersonic flight would actually be more sustainable. We have not had any commercial supersonic aeroplanes since the Concorde was taken out of commission in 2003, so why would it be a good idea to reintroduce supersonic air travel now? This very technical paper on supersonic flights with new types of aviation fuel suggests that the impact will actually have a cooling effect rather than a warming effect. LINK But this is not a settled debate by any means, and these are still a lot of other types of impacts, like cost and Noise, from flying faster than the speed of sound. |
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Credit: Yang H. Ku/C&EN/Shutterstock- It would be more expensive - researcher from Nasa estimated that it would cost 83% more than a regular flight
- United Airlines bought 15 supersonic aeroplanes from airlines company Boom Supersonic, while stating that they will reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. It is interesting however that Boom has rarely commented more on this
- Most countries have put a restriction on supersonic flights, as they are very loud (cen.acs.org, n.d).
