Australia Joins the Race for Supersonic Flight

Re:Australia Joins the Race for Supersonic Flight by opwieurposiu on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @03:12PM (#27134027)

Modern non-military jet engines are designed with high pressure ratios around 50-60 to get good subsonic cruise efficiency.

For a supersonic jet, a lot of the compression is done by the intake, so the compression in the engine must be much lower, around 10-20. This is why off the shelf engines don't work very well for supersonic.

The concorde used a pressure ratio 11.3 from the engine, but combined with the intake it was 82 when at cruise. This actually made it very efficient at 43%. During taxi and climb-out however, the low pressure ratio made it a real gas guzzler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce/Snecma_Olympus_593

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Australia Joins the Race for Supersonic Flight by trhway on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @03:45PM (#27134351)

To get to the efficient supersonic mode asap they even used afterburner. Military engines are 20-30 so they would be most suitable COTS.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Australia Joins the Race for Supersonic Flight by mshook on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @04:13PM (#27134590)

There was a B version on the drawing board which would have dropped the afterburner...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde#Range

And you're right, the ballpark fuel consumption for Concorde says your hourly rate is not that dissimilar in subsonic than in supersonic so you better fly fast quick...

[ Parent | on HN ]