A 'silent' Airliner?

[Wing Nut]

Engineers plan out "silent" airliner of the future

Interesting concept, but I don't know if it'll fly...  ;)

[Hagar]

Can't put my finger on it but this looks strangely familiar.


It seems to me that the biggest problem with aircraft noise has always been during take-off & landing. Reducing that could only be achieved by reducing the noise of the engines. Modern turbofan engines are already a huge improvement on the conventional gas turbines of a few years ago. Airliners like the BAe 146 (Avro RJ) are already known as "hush jets" & allowed to operate from environmentally sensitive inner-city locations like London City Airport. I think it might be more sensible & far cheaper to develop that concept. http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/avrorjx/

[Craig.]

planes like the 777 are already rather quiet anyway even on take-off. The small jets are easy to keep quiet problem is the bigger the plane the bigger the engine, thus more noise, this design works on 4 smaller engines, well ok, but they will still have to be bigger than the current quiet engines, and the more you have the more noise anyway.

[Boss_BlueAngels]

Thinking of Boeing's BWB?  



It's been on the drawing board for many years now.

And the thing with silencing the engines is that the heat difference is what causes the loud noise.  Or so I've been told.  That's why a jet in AB is so much louder than when it is just at mil power.  And the F-117's are very quite dispite they have the same engines as F/A-18's (minus the AB) but have the divices that help to disipate heat.  

[SilverFox441]

The concept goes even further back...Barnes Wallis proposed his "Swallow" as far back as the 1950's/1960's.

Of course...that design would not have been quiet. A variable geometry hypersonic airliner with no control surfaces.

[C]

Can't put my finger on it but this looks strangely familiar.

The concept goes even further back...Barnes Wallis proposed his "Swallow" as far back as the 1950's/1960's.

Of course...that design would not have been quiet. A variable geometry hypersonic airliner with no control surfaces.

I was about the say the same thing. I might see if I can find a picture of the thing. I believe it was quite extensively wind tunnelled...

[EirePlane]

And the thing with silencing the engines is that the heat difference is what causes the loud noise.  Or so I've been told.

According to a documentary I saw on the BAE 146, the engines are quietened by blasting a jet of cool air into the gases coming out of the rear of the engine (or something like that) thus making it quieter.

[Hagar]

The Barnes Wallis Swallow was basically a variable geometry or swing-wing jet airliner developed from his WWII research under the code name Wild Goose. I've never seen a drawing or artist's impression as I think this was the name of the project & covered various designs. Another interesting idea was the method of control by rotating the engines (or the exhaust nozzles).
Unfortunately this was never developed beyond the model stage as it was many years ahead of its time.

Barnes Wallis with a model of the Swallow.

http://www.1940.co.uk/history/article/wallis/wallis.htm

I might be confusing this 'new' project with several other drawings & models I've seen over the years, even from TV series like Thunderbirds. Basically the lifting body or 'blended wing' is an extension of the flying wing concept so I see no reason why it wouldn't fly. The Horten Brothers in Germany & Jack Northrop in the US were working on very similar concepts even before WWII.

[SilverFox441]

We really need an FS10 Swallow don't we?  :o

[Triple_7]

I like the concept of a wing shaped airliner...something different for once....But i would not want to fly on a plane without windows and or limited windows.  I like to look out and dont want some cheap "virtual window".  I want the real deal

As for the steeper decents...if its quieter then why  Its not that fun being in a jet that takes dives on its way down...Had that on a TWA DC-9 a few years ago and was not by any means comfortable :-/