The United States Air Force awarded a new contract with Exosonic as a feasibility of Air Force One to become hypersonic in the future. The low-boom supersonic jet could possibly serve as future Air Force One aircraft.
A startup Exosonic has been awarded a U.S Air Force contract to develop a supersonic executive transport aircraft in the mid-2030s. According to a tweet from the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), the contract was awarded by AFLCMC’s Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate and also involved the U.S Air Force Research Laboratory.
The spokesman of AFLCMC, stated that the supersonic jet would “allow key decision makers and teams to travel around the world in half the time it takes now.”
Exosonic is building a quiet supersonic passenger jet that can fly over land and water without creating any loud noise and that can carry up to 70 passengers. As the manufacturer claims in the official introductory statement, the jet could become the future of aviation by using the same technology that is used by NASA in its X-59 Quiet Supersonic Research Aircraft.
The jet should stand out for its “supersonic speeds without the window-shattering noise”, according to the company’s statement. The technology is supposed to either reduce the noise level on the ground “to a dampened thump” or to eliminate any sound at all.
Earlier in August 2020, a news feed website Green Car Congress announced that Hermeus Corporation, another aerospace start-up, won a $1.5 million SBIR Phase II award with the U.S Air Force and the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate. Under the contract, the company will assess modifying its Mach 5 commercial jet, that currently is under development, into an aircraft for the Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate fleet.
