Engineering challenges of supersonic transport
hypersonic transport by 2029. The aircraft will be using an engine called Chimera, which consists of a
turbojet engine, afterburner and ramjet, which has a high efficiency at high speed. 14 When the aircraft
is travelling at a high speed, the air will generate a high pressure region in front of it and the ramjet will
use the compressed air to accelerate the plane to hypersonic speed. However, in order to achieve such
technology, the company still have to solve the existing problem of supersonic speed. In hypersonic
speed, the shock waves generated will be even worse than supersonic speed. Furthermore, the aircraft
will also suffer from the problem of high temperature when it reaches Mach 5. Therefore, hypersonic
transport may still need further development in order to ensure its feasibility and safety.
In conclusion, although there are a lot of challenges in achieving supersonic transport including engine
efficiency, aerodynamics restrictions and pollution, there is still cause for optimism. Potential
supersonic commercial aircraft such as the Boom Overture will play a very important role in the
revolution of aviation. The success of supersonic transport will be a huge motivation for more advanced
transport, such as hypersonic transport or even commercial space travel.
14 Chimera. Hermeus https://www.hermeus.com/chimera.
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