Dangerous Day Job

I’m always on the lookout for inspiration, from little moments throughout the day, snippets of conversation I overhear, people going about their business, or something a friend says to me in conversation. Usually I have to be pretty active in my search for this kind of thing, making sure to connect what I see or hear to what I’m writing or thinking about, otherwise I’ll just forget the details and let them slide by. Other times though, I get a piece of inspiration that is just too cool to even need to work on. Today for example, I read a news article from NASA about their newest research plane, the X-59, which is just too cool to look at.

They’re using it to research the noise level of sonic booms to try and make them quieter. One of the biggest hurdles for overland supersonic flight is the noise level of sonic booms, which is part of the reason Concorde failed. It’s actually illegal for commercial aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds due to the noise, and after restrictions were put in place to reduce the constant sonic booms, the planes were forced to fly up much higher before entering supersonic flight. The already miserable fuel economy of the planes was worsened by flying at a less than optimal speed for so long, reducing profits by a huge margin. Plus having to go so slow for so long ruined the reason you would fly Concorde in the first place. Maybe NASA can change all that with a quieter plane.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley