A Supersonic Biplane For The 21st Century
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 15:31
in Physics & Chemistry
Supersonic passenger jets are so 1970s. The Concorde has been gone for almost 10 years and most people don't miss it. But its fundamental concept - people want to get places faster - has not gone away.Now an MIT researcher says he has come up with a concept that may solve many of the problems that grounded the Concorde, like expensive tickets, high fuel costs, limited seating and noise disruption from the jet’s sonic boom. Qiqi Wang, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, says the solution, in principle, is simple, going back to the earliest days of flight: Instead of flying with one wing to a side, why not two? read more