Thursday, April 5, 2007

The Future High-Speed Civil Transport


L.A. to Tokyo in Four Hours - The Future High-Speed Civil TransportNASA and its industry partners have developed a concept for a next-generation supersonic passenger jet that would fly 300 passengers at more than 1,500 miles per hour - more than twice the speed of sound. As envisioned, the High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) would cross the Pacific or Atlantic in less than half the time of modern subsonic jets, and at a ticket price less than 20 percent above comparable, slower flights.
Technology to make the HSCT possible is being developed as part of NASA's High-Speed Research (HSR) program, managed by NASA Langley. Langley engineers are actively involved in developing technologies for the HSCT airframe, including the materials and structures from which it will be built. Langley also leads the development team for the HSCT cockpit, which will have side windows, but no forward-facing windows.
According to studies performed by Boeing, the projected market for more than 500 HSCT's between 2000 and 2015 translates to more than $200 billion in sales, and the potential of 140,000 new jobs in the U.S.

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