01-16-2017, 03:19 PM
Quote:Composite materials suitable for the high temperatures of supersonic applications.
How would that make commercial supersonic flight cheaper? It's already possible, has been for decades.
Quote:Um yeah there is. You are showing a plot of drag coefficient CD. Drag force is proportion to CD and speed squared. Since work is force integrated over distance, mpg would be correlated with drag force. So even if CD returns to subsonic levels, fuel economy at 1500 mph would still be nine times less than at 500 mph.
What Mike said, and you still have to bust through the sound barrier both ways. Aviation is a fairly mature industry, with a lot of money behind it already, and it still stagnated after the 70s. I just don't think we are going to see these sorts of radical improvements you're hypothesizing in the absence of some sort of technical advancement a damned site more impressive than cool composites.