Suborbital Flights To Soon Take You Anywhere Within 2 Hours: Study

Nearly 20 years after the final flight of Concorde- the world's first supersonic commercial airliner- the aviation industry is set to enter an era of ultrafast air travel. According to New York Post, NASA's experimental supersonic aircraft, the X-59 'Son of Concorde' is all set for its first test flight.

The X-59, which is smaller and slower than Concorde, has a top speed of around 1,500 kilometres per hour and promises to cut travel time from New York to London by approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes. 

Recent research published by Britain's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) suggested that by the year 2033, a flight from London to Sydney, which currently takes 22 hours, could be reduced to just two hours.

Notably, suborbital flights resemble the rockets employed by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic jet program. These flights which operate at an astounding speed of 3500 miles, equivalent to 5632 kilometres per hour, offer incredible time-saving opportunities.

For instance, a person can go from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes, instead of the current 15-hour drive. A trip from New York to London, for example, can be completed in less than an hour. 

X-59 also features ‘Quiet Supersonic Technology' which is intended to turn the sonic boom caused by breaking the sound barrier into a 'sonic thump'.

"Then an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound, shockwaves form and travel away from the aircraft. Normally, these shockwaves merge and generate disruptive sonic booms heard on the ground for miles on either side of the aircraft's flight path. The X-59 is shaped in a way that prevents the shockwaves from coming together, resulting in a gentle sonic thump instead of the loud sonic boom produced by other supersonic aircraft.," NASA said.

Once fully assembled and ready for flight, the single-seat X-59 will be just shy of 100 feet (30.5m) long, with a hard-swept wingspan of just 29.5 feet (9m) and a height of just 14 feet (4.25 meters). It will be able to cruise at 55,000 feet and, will have a cruising speed of Mach 1.4.