コンコルドより速いマッハ３、超音速旅客機をヴァージンが開発へ

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】宇宙旅行企業ヴァージン・ギャラクティックは3日、音速の3倍の速さで飛行する超音速旅客機を開発するために、英エンジンメーカーのロールス・ロイスと事業提携することを発表した。（写真は宇宙旅行企業ヴァージン・ギャラクティックが開発する、マッハ3の超音速旅客機のデザイン画）
　新たに開発する旅客機はマッハ３の速さに達する予定で、１９７６年から２００３年まで運用されマッハ２で飛行した超音速旅客機の草分け、コンコルドよりも速い。
　しかし、超音速旅客機の開発にあたっては騒音や燃料消費量など、コンコルドを運用中止に追いやった問題を解決する必要がある。
　ヴァージン・ギャラクティック宇宙事業部門のトップ、ジョージ・ホワイトサイズ氏は「われわれは、この高速旅客機の初期設計案を発表できることをうれしく思う。安全で信頼できる民間航空機での旅と、比類のない顧客体験を組み合わせたものを思い描いている」と述べた。
　設計案によると、この超音速旅客機は「デルタ・ウイング」という三角形の翼を持ち、定員は９～１９人。従来の旅客機の飛行高度の２倍にあたる高度１万８０００メートル以上を飛行する想定。離着陸には通常の空港の滑走路を使用するという。今後さらに試験飛行を実施する予定で、商業運航の開始日程は未定だという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/08/05-09:45）

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic on Monday announced a partnership with engine-maker Rolls-Royce to build a supersonic commercial airplane that flies at three times the speed of sound.
The aircraft would travel at Mach 3 -- rather than the Mach 2 speed of Concorde, the pioneering jet that operated from 1976 to 2003.
Any new supersonic plane would have to solve the problems that doomed Concorde, in particular noise and fuel consumption.
We are excited to... unveil this initial design concept of a high speed aircraft, which we envision as blending safe and reliable commercial travel with an unrivalled customer experience, said George Whitesides, chief space officer at Virgin Galactic.
The aircraft's draft design showed a plane with a triangular delta wing carrying between nine and 19 passengers at an altitude of more than 60,000 feet, or 18,000 meters -- about twice as high as normal commercial flight.
The plane would take off and land at existing airport runways.
Virgin Galactic said its team would work to address key challenges in thermal management, maintenance, noise, emissions, and economics that routine high speed commercial flights would entail.
The company signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce to develop an engine for the aircraft.
Virgin Galactic's main focus this far has been its part-plane, part-rocket craft that is being developed to carry tourists to the edge of space.
It is awaiting more test flights, and no launch date for commercial journeys has been set.
The company, which was listed on the stock exchange last year, is seeking to diversify and in May it announced an agreement with NASA to develop high-speed technology.
NASA has also been working for decades on a silent supersonic experimental aircraft, the X-59. A first prototype is being built by Lockheed-Martin in California.
The project hopes to make the supersonic boom -- the explosion caused by crossing the sound barrier -- almost inaudible on the ground.