Talk:Supersonic transport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of the Aviation WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.	Aviation Portal
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information and associated projects or task forces: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- B-Class-1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points have appropriate inline citations. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- B-Class-2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- B-Class-3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- B-Class-4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- B-Class-5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no This article is not currently associated with a task force. To tag it for one or more task forces, please add the task force codes from the template instructions to the template call.

Contents 1 Tu-44 2 European Supersonic Research 3 Damage to the Ozone Layer 4 USAF SST program

[edit] Tu-44

The article fails to mention that the TU-144 was the first supersonic passenger jet, airborne 2 months before the Concorde. Also, the Russian plane did go into regular, if domestic only, service. It was used on weekly Moscow-AlmaAta flights.

[edit] European Supersonic Research

Can a knowledgeable person update the paragraph on the "European Supersonic Research Program"? I am sure it needs updating -- I just removed the note that it was aiming to create a reference configuration in 1999. Google search for "European Supersonic Research Program" returns 29 hits.

"The main advantage appeared to be practical, these designs would be flying at least three times as fast as existing subsonic designs, and would be able to three planes and thereby lower costs in terms of manpower and maintenance."'
This sentence does not make sense, can someone correct it?
Adrian Pingstone 22:43, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for correcting that sentence.

Adrian Pingstone 21:07, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Damage to the Ozone Layer

Regarding the following text in the section "Damage to the Ozone Layer": "The high altitude flight makes such damage theoretically more likely than with traditional aircraft. However, research showed that the comparatively tiny quantity of nitric oxides generated in the exhaust actually boosts the ozone layer."

The webpage http://www.npi.gov.au/database/substance-info/profiles/67.html (which was cited in Nitric Oxide) contains the following information on the effects of nitric oxide on the ozone layer:

"In the stratosphere, oxides of nitrogen play a crucial role in maintaining the level of ozone. Ozone is formed through the photochemical reaction of nitrogen dioxide and oxygen. However, too little nitrogen dioxide results in too little ozone being formed, On the other hand, too much nitric oxide reduces the level of ozone because of an increase in the reaction of ozone to convert nitric oxide to nitrogen dioxide."

Ozone: "The latter reaction (O₃ + O → 2 O₂) is catalysed by the presence of certain free radicals, of which the most important are hydroxyl (OH), nitric oxide (NO) and atomic chlorine (Cl) and bromine (Br)."

Ozone-oxygen cycle: "Certain free radicals, the most important being hydroxyl (OH), nitric oxide (NO), and atoms of chlorine (Cl) and bromine (Br), catalyze the recombination reaction, leading to an ozone layer that is thinner than it would be if the catalysts were not present."

From all these sources, I have concluded that NO has a very important role in the ozone cycle, but greater amounts of Nitric Oxide in the stratosphere would do nothing to boost the ozone layer. If anyone else with a slightly greater understanding of this comes along and happens to agree with my conclusions here, the text of that section should definitely be changed. Ph0t0phobic 22:36, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] USAF SST program

Im no expert in this but the article fails to go into any detail about the huge work by the USAF - e.g. the Blackbird program/SR71 built by Lockheed's skunkworks flew at record speeds during this timeframe (1960-85) at 3,600 MPH routinely. http://www.aviationexplorer.com/sr-71_facts.htm

Also Gen Gibbs headed up the USAF SST program developing an SST which resulted in the superconic bomber the ? B1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-1_Lancer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.216.68.78 (talk • contribs)

They're not SSTs they're just supersonic aircraft. An SST is for transporting people around commercially.WolfKeeper 23:06, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

• Before the SR-71 and B-1 was the B-70 Valkyrie, a proposed Mach 3 bomber. Its XB-70 prototypes were used in SST flight testing. -Fnlayson 23:10, 13 September 2007 (UTC)