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girlwhowaspluggedout writes:
"Spike Aerospace has revealed how the Spike S-512, which is planned to be the first supersonic business jet, will be able to fly from New York to London in half the time that the flight requires now. The plane, which is expected to carry 12-18 passengers, will enjoy the reduced drag and lower weight that come with an advanced engine and no windows:" Read more below.
The new supersonic jet will feature a revolutionary windowless passenger cabin so no more glaring sun and no more shades to pull down or push up. Instead, the interior walls will be covered with a thin display screens embedded into the wall. Cameras surrounding the entire aircraft will construct breathtaking panoramic views displayed on the cabin screens. Passengers will be able to dim the screens to catch some sleep or change it to one of the many scenic images stored in the system.
Without windows, the S-512 is expected to reach speeds between Mach 1.6 and 1.8.
Dr Darren Ansell, an expert in space and aerospace engineering at the University of Central Lancashire, told BBC News what passengers in a plane without windows can expect to experience:
There will be no natural light it will all be simulated so it will be a bit like being in a tube. And how would it work from a safety perspective? If there was an accident how would you know which way the plane was facing, and where you had landed, when the cameras have failed?"
You just know that some imaginative hacker is going to have a field day with this..."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aiwarrior on Saturday February 22 2014, @06:42PM
It is highly likely it is vaporware unfortunately. The know-how required for supersonic research is mostly in big military companies. Just to give you some food for thought, do you know how many supersonic wind tunnels exist and how expensive it is to operate them? I don't know how many but surely they can be counted with my hands. Take a look at the power requirements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_wind_tunne l#Power_requirements [wikipedia.org].
The certification costs of new commercial aircraft are normally prohibitive and I find it hard that someone outside some superstar millionaire like Musk would have the capital for such an endeavor without the right reputation. Remember aviation is a very conservative industry.
I am in my last year of aeronautical studies and from my experience most of the new companies are in the UAV sector. First because the capital cost and risk is much smaller and second because for an university it is easier to pass experience through inexpensive wind tunnels and equipment than special one of a kind wind tunnels and aircraft. So it is unlikely there are many new supersonic engineers out there. The ones that are, are already in the big military companies.
About the lack of windows...I find that the concept would decrease operational costs tremendously even in the normal airliners, because a window is a hole in the fuselage. This means the strength of the fuselage has to be over dimensioned when compared to a windowless fuselage. The over dimensioning reflects itself through additional structural elements and complexity which cost money to implement and fuel to take it "upstairs".
This is my perspective of course. It would be great to have other inputs.