this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
384 points (97.8% liked)
Technology
58012 readers
3153 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
One of the material issues with supersonic is friction heat buildup. Probably can't have a front windshield at that speed.
Cameras and instrumentation will do just fine tho
The heat is from compression, not friction. And besides that, this thing is only flying at mach 1.5, there are TONS of aircraft that fly at those speeds (and much faster) with windshields.
The reason it doesn't have a front windshield is because the change in shape of the aircraft at the windshield, to be more vertical, was disrupting their method of reducing the sonic boom. The aircraft needs the shape it has, so a windshield would have to be like 20 feet long to offer any forward visibility.
Neat. Thanks for the info!