NASA Exploring Possibility of Supersonic Flights With Help of Boeing

A flight to London from New York City takes around eight hours, but NASA and other industry leaders are exploring whether it'd be possible for that commercial flight to clock in at 90 minutes.

By Oscar Rodriguez

Source The Wenatchee World, Wash. (TNS)

Aug. 29, 2023

2 min read

Aug. 28—WASHINGTON D.C. — A flight to London from New York City takes around eight hours, but NASA and other industry leaders are exploring whether it'd be possible for that commercial flight to clock in at 90 minutes.

Everett-based Boeing is among the group of companies tasked with finding out.

NASA's Advanced Air Vehicles Program is issuing two 12-month contracts to companies to develop "concept designs and technology roadmaps," according to a NASA blog post.

Previous studies by NASA investigated whether it made business sense for supersonic aircrafts traveling between Mach 2 and Mach 4 — or two to four times the speed of sound.

About 50 established routes could be replaced with supersonic flight. Many of the proposed routes include North Atlantic routes and crossing the Pacific Ocean since the U.S. and other nations prohibit supersonic flight over land.

Boeing is leading the first team with several other partners including Rolls-Royce North American Technologies, Georgia Tech Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory and others. The second team is led by Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, according to the blog post.

Each team will "develop roadmap elements to include airframe, power, propulsion, thermal management, and composite materials," in order to hold up under high-supersonic speeds, according to the blog post.

The concept vehicle designs created will be non-proprietary. Once this phase is completed, NASA and partners will decide whether to continue with research with their own investments.

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