NASA annuncia piano da 2,3 milioni per il nuovo aereo supersonico


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NASA annuncia piano da 2,3 milioni per il nuovo aereo supersonico

L’agenzia spaziale statunitense finanzia otto progetti di ricerca con lo scopo di affrontare le diverse sfide tecniche del volo supersonico, come l’impatto sulla stratosfera e la riduzione del boato supersonico.

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Dopo oltre un decennio dall’ultimo volo del Concorde, la Nasa vuole far rivivere il sogno del volo supersonico. L’agenzia spaziale statunitense ha annunciato finanziamenti per 2,3 milioni di dollari per otto progetti di ricerca, ognuno con lo scopo di affrontare le diverse sfide tecniche del volo a velocità superiori di 1 Mach, come l’impatto nella stratosfera e la riduzione del boato supersonico. Nel frattempo , la Nasa si è occupata di raccogliere dati utili alla progettazione di nuovi velivoli in grado rovesciare l’attuale divieto di volo supersonico sulla terra.

La riduzione del boato sonico
“Diminuire il boato sonico, le onde d’urto causate da un aereo che vola a una velocità maggiore di quella del suono, è l’ostacolo più significativo per reintrodurre voli supersonici commerciali” ha spiegato Peter Coen, responsabile dell’High Speed Project del Dipartimento di Ricerca e Missione Aeronautico della Nasa, “Altri limiti includono le emissioni ad alta quota, l’efficienza del carburante e il rumore nelle aree intorno agli aeroporti”.

L'impatto sullo strato di ozono
Un altro progetto, invece, esaminerà l’impatto ambientale del volo supersonico nella stratosfera e verrà condotto dal Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dove il team di ricerca prevede di misurare gli impatti sul clima e sullo strato di ozono associati al volo di una flotta di aerei supersonici avanzati (Nasa N + 2 generation). Come parte del programma di ricerca separata, l’Agenzia spaziale sta studiando il volo supersonico utilizzando una nuovo design alare, chiamato ‘hybrid wing body’, descritto da Gizmodo come una superficie in grado di fondersi perfettamente nel corpo del velivolo, rendendolo estremamente aerodinamico e riducendo drasticamente il consumo di carburante, rumore ed emissioni.

http://motori.fanpage.it/nasa-2-3-milioni-in-ricerca-per-il-nuovo-aereo-supersonico/
 
Così, a naso, ma 2,3 milioni di dollari per un progetto del genere non sono pochi ???
 
immagino che i 2,3MUSD sono il budget che ha stanziato la NASA solamente per dei 'progetti di ricerca' tecnica.
Forse hanno rilasciato un RFP ufficiale a margine di questa notizia.
 
Aggiornamento: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...ockheed-martin-to-design-supersonic-x-422539/

NASA selects Lockheed Martin to design supersonic X-plane
NASA has selected Lockheed Martin to design a half-scale supersonic X-plane with boom-suppression technology in an effort to lift the international ban on flying faster than Mach 1.0 overland.

The announcement on 29 February at Washington National Airport launches the preliminary design phase of the quiet supersonic technology (QueSST) programme.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden linked QueSST with the agency’s legacy of high-speed research, beginning with the rocket-powered Bell X-1 that first broke the sound barrier in 1947.
“Now we’re continuing that supersonic X-plane legacy with this preliminary design award for a quieter supersonic jet with an aim toward passenger flight,” says Bolden.
A rendering released by NASA shows reveals a design with an elongated nose designed to attenuate the effect of the supersonic shockwave that develops when aircraft fly faster than M1.0.

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The single-engined design also features a vectored thrust nozzle, delta wing and two forward control surfaces mounted forward of the cockpit. Intriguingly, the design shows a cockpit with an upward-facing window but no forward-facing windscreen.
Some systems suppliers, such as Honeywell, have suggested that aerodynamic requirements would force a future supersonic aircraft to rely on enhanced or combined vision systems to provide a visual picture for the pilot.
NASA has previously described the low-boom supersonic demonstrator aircraft as a prototype weighing about 25,000lb, which is large enough to accurately replicate the acoustic signature of a 100-seat airliner weighing up to 300,000lb.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has banned supersonic flight overland since the late-1960s. A similar restriction is also in the ICAO rulebook.
Such regulations conspired to limit the business case for the Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde, of which only 16 were sold. The Air France andBritish Airways fleet was retired in 2003 with no replacement.
In the past decade, several companies have expressed interest in supersonic technology for the business-jet market. Airbus-backed start-up Aerion believes a market exists for a supersonic business jet that can fly above Mach 1.0 only over water.
But other companies, including Gulfstream, are not so sure, believing the market is sustainable only if the ban on supersonic flight is overturned.
That regulatory change can’t happen until an acoustic survey is performed using a representative aircraft.
NASA plans to start building the supersonic X-plane in 2019, with first flight scheduled in 2020. The acoustic survey would begin in 2021 in southern California and continue for several years.
Lockheed has been involved in civil supersonic transports since the early 1960s. But Lockheed lost a bid to build an FAA-funded supersonic transport to Boeing, but the 2707 project was cancelled in the early 1970s.
Fifteen years ago, Michael Paulson, son of former Gulfstream chief executive Allen Paulson, launched a start-up company called Supersonic Aerospace International (SAI), which paid Lockheed’s Skunk Works to develop a concept for a supersonic business jet. But the global financial crisis in 2008 devastated SAI’s funding sources, and the project faded from view by 2010.
More recently, NASA in 2010 funded Lockheed and Boeing to study separately whether modern technology can reduce the acoustic signature of a supersonic jet to levels that are not bothersome to the ears of people or livestock.
After both contractors’ preliminary results indicated it was possible, NASA funded a second phase of the studies, which included analysis of wind tunnel models. Lockheed published the results of that study last year, finding that boom-suppression technology can reduce the noise signature of a 100-seat supersonic transport to about 75EPndB, well within the 80EPndB threshold estimate for nuisance sound in the human ear.