Worlds first silent aircraft plans unveiled

news.bbc.co.uk...

www.cambridge-mit.org...


Clever bods from MIT have unveiled designs for the first silent aircraft.

A prototype should be ready in 12 months.

Think of the civil and military uses for this technology. No longer would houses near civil airports be intolerable to live in because of the noise.


Cheers


Debaser








[edit on 18-8-2005 by John bull 1]

Personally as one who likes to have a window seat it doesn't excitement me, there ar only windows for the pilot.

Nothing worse than travelling in a box unable to see outside.



[edit on 18-8-2005 by Netchicken]

ooohhh maybe not .. this one has windows, but not many.



[edit on 18-8-2005 by Netchicken]

Silent aircraft have been around for quite some time, they're called gliders.

www.ueet.nasa.gov...

Thermal Updraft Monkeys, not just for sailing all day long anymore...

This image shows windows...



But from the looks of it, the windows are up front and will be for first class passengers only.

thanks for the pics i was just getting round to that my self


as for the limited windows maybe the first class compartments could have the windows.




Or maybe make the sides of the aircraft out of poly carbonate as it would make the interior feel much less claustrophobic.


Not sure of the airwortyness of that idea though. I always liked the idea of windows in the floor so you could look down as you travel. However I can imagine more people REALLY not liking that idea



Cheers



D

Originally posted by Mirthful Me
Silent aircraft have been around for quite some time, they're called gliders.

[

sorry. Powered aircraft? would that be a better description but then again ive seen gliders with engines i think the venture is one.

Originally posted by Debaser
Not sure of the airwortyness of that idea though. I always liked the idea of windows in the floor so you could look down as you travel. However I can imagine more people REALLY not liking that idea

Now thats a good idea!

Theres ... something on the landing gear ... some ... thing!

You can alway put tiny video cameras on the outside and have the video fed to plasma screens, for fake windows.

More on the SAI

Demonstrating even lower-noise features on an already quiet 777-300ER is the goal of a three-week flight test program led by Boeing [NYSE: BA] and called the Quiet Technology Demonstrator "2" (QTD2).

Flight testing is under way at the company's Glasgow, Montana, test facility where several advanced noise-reduction concepts will be tested. These include chevrons on the engine exhaust ducts and new acoustic treatment for the engine inlet. Landing gear noise reduction features also will be tested to lower aircraft noise during landing.

The program is an equal cost-sharing project between The Boeing Company, the General Electric Company, Goodrich Corporation's Aerostructures division, and NASA. All Nippon Airways of Japan is providing one of its soon-to-be-delivered 777-300ER airplanes for the flight test activities.

Each company is validating key technologies for incorporation into its own current and future products. NASA is joining the industry effort to acquire data to test some of its advances in propulsion aeroacoustics and computational fluid dynamics.

Boeing tests noise reducing features on a 777


It sounds (no pun) like some work is already under way.



[edit on 18-8-2005 by NWguy83]

Just kinda curious what the survival rate on a crash in one of these things would be. Do you think better or worse than conventional airliners?

If they are only just brining about noise-less aircraft now, how do you explain silent unidentified flying objects? They have been around for years!

I have seen one myself thats all and put it down to the millitery using craft we aren't even aware of yet and what i saw was over 10 years ago now!

To see what i am talking about check my signature

[edit on 05012005 by Earth Angel]

Im very anxious to see this beauty fly.

BTW nice design

[edit on 18-8-2005 by evanfitz]

I think its a great idea, and the design is really cool, but will people buy tickets for it, alot of people dont like things that change so much, and changing between a normal jetliner and one of these, i'm sure theres gonna be a good handful of people who are scared of the design change.

Cool

I wish there was more technical specs provided

I like the blended wing body - BWB. I wonder how bad they'd have to cut up the terminal gates? Some major airports are SO out of room even now.

NWguy...Actually Boeing is also working with them on this project.

Debaser - Thanks for those articles. I'm a big fan of all wing designs. There was a big write up in popular science article complete with nice renders. I had never read of these designs being particularly quiet though.

The lift advantages and fuel efficiency of these designs always carried the burden of stability problems durring aggressive manuevering. Something resolved durring development of the B2. I would imagine with such great lift properties the survivability of one of these aircraft would be far higher than conventional airliners.

A model I've been working on

Originally posted by Murcielago
NWguy...Actually Boeing is also working with them on this project.

I know that.

thats a pretty cool picture nullster...was it based off of this?



[edit on 19-8-2005 by Murcielago]