Eddie Rickenbacker, in his fragile Nieuport XIII, creating the proverbial double boom over the trenches?
Well, no, but it’s a helluva image. And not so far-fetched, either.
It looks like the idea of a supersonic biplane has been around since the 1930s (h/t Txnologist), when a visionary German engineer by the name of Adolf Busemann researched supersonic airflow around wings. He found, among others. that a properly designed double wing practically cancels out the ear-shattering sonic boom, not to mention yielding more lift, less drag, greater economy etc.
The idea wasn’t forgotten, and Rui Hu, a postdoc at MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, developed the innovative design for her doctoral thesis at Stanford and published her results last year. And now the Obayashi Laboratory at Tohoku University in Japan is working on a proof-of-concept prototype, the MISORA (MItigated SOnic boom Research Aircraft).
Exciting times for anyone who can do math, science and engineering (as opposed to, say, critical racial studies or community organization).
