Air Force One is going supersonic according to Air Force’s Life Cycle Management Center. President Trump’s airplane is already one of the safest and fastest passenger airplanes in the world, but it’s going to be much faster.
Exosonic is an aviation company and it recently made headlines as the firm chosen by the US Airforce to develop a supersonic aircraft for the Pentagon. The research award worth $1m is aimed at modifying Exosonic’s already existing plans for a supersonic commercial airplane (think Concorde) into a presidential grade aircraft.
As per a Twitter post from the Air Force’s Life Cycle Management Center last week, Exosonic will “develop a low-boom supersonic executive transport aircraft that will allow key decision makers and teams to travel around the world in half the time it takes now!”
The US President is currently traveling using a state of the art Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, which is the latest version of Air Force One. According to Boeing, Air Force One can travel at a maximum speed of 0,86 Mach, whereas 1 Mach is the speed of sound in the air.
A supersonic Air Force One will dramatically change the nature of air-travel for US presidents, as it will make international trips easier and much quicker. The low boom thing about the project refers to the aircraft’s capabilities to achieve supersonic speeds quietly.
Here’s Exosonic CEO Norris Tie announcing the contract in a press release:
“The future for global rapid passenger travel is low-boom supersonic flight. Low boom allows travelers to fly at supersonic speeds without generating disruptive booms for those on the ground. Exosonic is excited to win this contract as it represents not only commercial but government promise for low-boom supersonic travel.”
Exosonic will focus on, let us quote: “reconfiguring the aircraft cabin to include the required accommodations, communications equipment, and security measures that allow US leaders and their guests to work and rest onboard the aircraft.”
The first prototype of the commercial version of Air Force One,i.e. a supersonic Boeing 747-200B, is going to be available in 5 years from now, by 2025 respectively. Boeing was already awarded a $3.9 billion contract for crafting an updated version of the Air Force One, and it will deliver two 747-8 planes to replace the existing fleet. The new Air Force Ones are expected to be ready by 2024.
It’s unforgivable that Boeing was forced to drop its commercial SST development program in the early 1970s by the absurd environmental regulations of Nixon’s brand new EPA and their bureaucratic tyranny ever since. Boeing would have set up competition with Concorde, that competition would have led to more robust research and development of low-boom supersonic technology on an ongoing basis, and we would all be flying cross-country and internationally in half the time today. Air flight technology evolved 50 times faster between WWII and 1970 than it has in the ensuing 50 years since.