Japan Takes Lead in Building a New Generation of Supersonic Jets

By: | June 18th, 2021

Image courtesy: JAXA

In the future, a flight from Tokyo to Europe or North America will be like taking the bullet train down to Osaka.

Sounds too good to be true! But this could soon become a reality given the progress being made by engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Tokyo-headquartered Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has joined hands with major Japanese engineering companies to develop supersonic passenger jets. A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft capable of flying faster than the speed of sound Mach 1 (1,224kph).

Working together with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Subaru, JAXA plan to develop supersonic planes by 2030.

While we all know that a supersonic airliner significantly cuts down the amount of time needed for international travel. But there are still many technical, economic, and environmental issues that need to be handled before it becomes a reality….especially after Concorde supersonic airplane crash in 2000.

JAXA is developing new technology

JAXA is developing technology to reduce air resistance and lowering the sonic boom during supersonic flight. The agency is also working on improving fuel efficiency to make supersonic planes economically viable.

JAXA has already developed a technology to reduce the noise by almost half by redesigning the plane’s airframe.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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