NASA has designed a supersonic aircraft that it hopes will help reduce flight time for international travelers, and its design is intended to reduce the noise of the jet to well below that of the Concorde.

Starting in August, Bloomberg reports, NASA will seek bids from aircraft manufacturers to bring their design to life with a full-scale mode, with a budget of nearly $400 million from the space agency to commit to the project over the next five years.

The plan is to create a commercially viable aircraft that can help address the growing demand for high-speed air transit, which is encouraged by tendencies like distributed workforces and international corporate conglomerates. Its something that NASA hopes to eventually share with airplane OEMs, including Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing and even smaller startups already working on addressing the same marketplace, including Colorados Boom Supersonic.

When I spoke to Boom CEO Blake Scholl earlier this year, he confirmed that one of their challenges coming to market would be reducing the noise of the engine used in their final airplane, which is partly responsible for regulations that avoid supersonic flight over land in the U.S. Booms initial roads are all cross-ocean, so that it can work on addressing those regulations( in place since the Concordes active years) before adding other routes.

NASAs design was built in part by Lockheed( whose theory craft design is illustrated above ), and it is targeting voice levels equivalent to what youd hear while driving a luxury auto on the road, Bloomberg reports, or around 60 to 65 decibels, compared to the Concordes 90 decibels.

Ultimately, NASA hopes the contract will result in live vehicle exams over populated communities by 2022, which should give it ammunition for changing applicable regulations. Boom be available to test fly their own demonstration craft starting sometime next year, so now it looks like there will be some spirited rivalry in this long-dormant region of transportation tech over the next decade.

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