The Quiet Concorde - Supersonic Spike S-512 | No Sonic Boom, No Problem!

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One of the biggest problems facing supersonic aircraft today is the sonic boom issue. Once an airplane goes fast enough, the noise of breaking the sound barrier at best is annoying but, at worse, causes damage on the ground. Hence why aircraft like the Concorde were banned from flying over land.

But one company devised a supersonic aircraft to minimize the sound barrier and be dubbed - the Spike S-512 Quiet Supersonic Jet.

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Planes are slow, and apart from the Concorde, they reached peak speed around 40 years ago, flying under the speed of sound. This means that no matter what you pay, there is a cap to how fast you can go. Sure there are showers and beds on board these days, but you don't get to your destination any faster.

In steps Boston-based Spike Aerospace, a company with a dream to bring back supersonic travel - kind of. They believe that while the Concorde was in the right direction, it was too fast.

They have developed a concept aircraft called the S-512 quiet supersonic jet, a plane that can go faster than typical aircraft but doesn't create the massive sonic boom that upsets so many. In fact, the sonic boom is projected to only be 75 decibels, the same noise as a vacuum.

According to Spike, the aircraft would seat up to 18 passengers and fly at a speed of Mach 1.6 or 1.8 depending on your source. The aircraft itself will have a range of 6,200 nautical miles (7,100 mi, 11,500 km).

This will mean routine flights will take around 1/2 the amount of time as standard aircraft, cutting a flight from New York to London down to just 3 hours.

On the inside, there won't be any windows apart from the cockpit. Instead, the Spike S-512 will feature a windowless passenger cabin, which will eliminate structural issues involved with the fuselage construction and reduce the aircraft's overall weight. The smooth exterior skin of the aircraft will also reduce the drag usually caused by windows.

The windowless cabin walls will be replaced with super-thin embedded high-definition video screens, which will provide panoramic views taken with micro-cameras installed on the aircraft exterior. Passengers will have the option of either dimming the screens to take some sleep or to switch over to the scenic images already stored in the system, avoiding the glaring sun and the use of shades.

So i bet your ready to buy and want to know when you can get your hands on this $100 million dollar aircraft. Well, since it was announced in 2014 there hasn't been much progress, and the delivery date keeps being pushed back.

"We made a lot of progress in 2016 in engineering and with the addition of a number of engineers and partners. Our plans for 2017 are even more exciting as we continue the development of the Spike S-512 Quiet Supersonic Jet. I'm looking forward to the first demo flight very soon." said Vik Kachoria, President & CEO of Spike Aerospace. – Spike Aerospace

In 2017, the firm tested a scale plane model - not supersonic speeds, just a normal remote control airplane

In 2018, the company announced that they were on track to build a prototype by early 2021 and start deliveries by 2023. Apparently, in 2018, the company also began to study a stretch version of the plane to seat 40-50 passengers. Possibly rivaling the project by Boom Supersonic project (which we will talk about in another video, stay tuned).

Sitting here in 2020 we look and.... uhh.... (ruffle paper noise), there doesn't seem to be any real update to the aircraft. All I have is that in 2020 suddenly, there was a burst of activity at the firm with the company hiring former CEO Virgin Australia Airlines, John Thomas, to help sell the aircraft to airlines.

"Spike Aerospace's vision for supersonic flight is tremendously compelling and ideally suited for all the major international airlines. The Spike Jet with a low-sonic boom, long-range and seating capacity will work well in airline operations. I'm looking forward to helping build relationships with major customers around the globe."

But hold on, I thought this aircraft was a business jet, and now they have an ex-CEO of a bankrupt airline (correlation not causation) selling the aircraft to airlines seems they are targeting a different market.

The last word from Spike is that they believe that By the mid-2020s, airlines will be able to offer premium passengers 40% faster flights on the Spike Supersonic Jet for business or first-class fares.

Whether or not we will see this quite Concorde or yet another dream project remains to be seen.

Thanks so much for watching today! I have another video just like this one about the virgin galactic project that you can watch here, as well as other videos about planes, trains, and much more.

If you liked the video today, feel free to subscribe, and I can't wait to see you commenting on the next one.

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