America currently remains ahead of China when it comes to airplanes that can fly faster than the speed of sound, according to Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl.
“I think aviation has always been seen as a symbol of technological superiority,” Scholl said Tuesday during a “Mornings with Maria” appearance. “Just like the chip, the airplane was invented in America, and China wants to surpass America as a leader in technology, so of course, they’re pursuing supersonic. It is the next step in aviation.”
The South China Morning Post reported over the weekend that the Chinese state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is working on a supersonic jet called the C949.
The aircraft, detailed in blueprints in a recent academic paper, is meant to reach Mach 1.6 and have a barely audible sonic boom when the project comes to fruition, according to the outlet.
The jet design is reportedly supposed to have a range 50% longer than the Concorde.
Comac has previously said it wants to bring the supersonic C949 to market by 2049, the South China Morning Post reported.
Scholl told host Maria Bartiromo that the “good news” is that right now, the US is “ahead” of China in supersonic jets.
“We’ve got the only operational, non-military supersonic jet in the world,” he said. “That’s the XB-1 prototype. We’ve demonstrated we can do it without a sonic boom.”
Scholl’s company, Boom Supersonic, is the Denver-based firm behind the XB-1.
Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator aircraft broke the sound barrier for its first time ever in late January.
During that highly-anticipated test flight, the jet went above Mach 1 several times “without generating a sonic boom that reached the ground,” the company said.
Scholl went on to tell Bartiromo that the “problem is right now” that the US is “in our own way with outloaded regulations.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration website, US regulations bar civilian flights from exceeding Mach 1 while traveling over land in America.
“From the 1970s, we have a ban on fast flights in the US,” he explained. “It’s really ridiculous. It should have been a ban on sonic booms, or at least bad sonic booms, but instead, that regulation’s been on the books for more than 50 years, and it’s prevented US companies from building the next generation of faster jets.”
Stricter supersonic regulations in the US have implications for the country competing with China, according to the Boom Supersonic CEO.
“I think it’s really, one, it’s soft power, a symbol of technological superiority. It’s something that the rest of the world is going to watch,” he said. “But it’s important to national security and economic security.”
“Right now, Boeing is the number one US exporter, but they haven’t invented a new plane in more than 20 years. At the same time, a quarter of all Air Force airplanes are actually modified commercial airplanes. This is where we get out tankers, our transports, even many of our spy planes are modified commercial planes. So if we don’t have next generation commercial transports, that means we don’t have next generation military transports. I find that really scary. We can’t let that happen.”
Scholl wants the US to change its regulations related to commercial supersonic flights.
“It’s a really simple, easy change. Right now, we literally have a regulation that says ‘thou shalt not exceed Mach 1’ and what it should say is ‘thou shalt not make bad noises,’” he said during the “Mornings with Maria” appearance. “If a supersonic flight is possible with no sonic boom on the ground, then obviously it should be allowed.”
Boom Supersonic has said it aims to “bring supersonic to everyone.”
Its XB-1 demonstrator aircraft “provides the foundation” for Overture, a larger jet it is creating for commercial supersonic flight, according to the company.
Overture is supposed to have the capacity for 64 to 80 passengers.
Boom Supersonic has also said that the jet is supposed to reach speeds twice as fast as current planes over water and 50% quicker over land.
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