China is designing a silent supersonic airplane to win the next era of commercial flight (www.fastcompany.com)
from yogthos@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.ml on 14 Apr 2025 12:16
https://lemmy.ml/post/28588495

#technology

threaded - newest

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 14 Apr 2025 13:10 next collapse

The headline is misleading. It’s quieter, but far from silent.

PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml on 14 Apr 2025 13:26 collapse

sonic booms quieter than a hairdryer

More like about one specific noise. Jet aircraft are generally pretty loud even outside of sonic booms.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 14 Apr 2025 13:38 collapse

Hairdryers are quite loud too. It’s a stretch to describe even the sonic boom as “silent”.

master5o1@lemmy.nz on 15 Apr 2025 09:26 collapse

Aren’t they fairly quiet to the passengers?

(the sound being behind the plane)

geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml on 15 Apr 2025 09:58 collapse

X doubt

Aerospace needs effiency not speed.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 15 Apr 2025 13:34 collapse

Given that this is being developed by COMAC which is a state owned company, I absolutely expect that it will see the light of day.

geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml on 15 Apr 2025 20:27 collapse

The problem is that the only way to do this is by using rocket engines which are extremely polluting. There would need to be new motor innovations which can be used for every field. Iike a small nuclear motor or the like.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 15 Apr 2025 21:09 collapse

I think we’ll have to wait and see what they actually come up with here.

geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml on 16 Apr 2025 06:36 collapse

Scheduled to debut in 2049

Gonna be a long wait

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 16 Apr 2025 12:43 collapse

China does tend to have a track record of finishing big engineering projects early. :)

geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml on 16 Apr 2025 15:12 collapse

The Chinese projects I admire is the non fancy stuff. Like building trains.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 16 Apr 2025 16:15 collapse

I personally like technological advancement in general. China has a good mix of practical and immediately useful tech, but they also do some moonshot projects like this. Even when these projects don’t work out, something interesting is learned in the process.