The year is 2030. A young boy, born 14 years from today (in 2020), hangs on the airport fence, waiting for an inbound jet to soar by, yearning for his dreams of one day flying to be brought to life. But unlike the airliners of previous generations, there will be no tell-tale whine of the jet’s engine as it flies over the fence, no audible sound eminating from the craft whatsoever.
The strange craft looks normal by 2030 standards, but was out there in left field pretty far back in 2006 when a Cambridge-MIT Institute collaboration called The Silent Aircraft Initiative released their first drawings of what is now commonly known as a Sax-40:
As the Sax-40 slides by overhead, the young boy remembers a conversation he had recently with his Grandpapa, who told exotic tales from “back in the day” when airplanes actually still made sounds. He spoke of masses of people making an exodus to the middle of a place called Wisconsin, to a little town known for making really great overalls called Oshkosh. They went there seeking the King of All Sausages – the Bratwurst – but also to listen to a strange phenomenon called “airplane noise”.The boy sat mesmerized, hanging on Grandpapa’s every word as he spoke of something called “radial engines”. The story sounded almost like a fairy tale, a far-out saga of big, round powerplants, with cylinders sticking out all over hell, rumbling – no snorting – to life as they puked out blue smoke and oil.
“Grandpapa,” asks the young boy, “I wish I could have heard what airplanes sound like.” “Your generation is missing out on one of the finest things in life,” answered Grandpapa, “there is nothing like the sound of those old airplane engines. I remember the first day I heard an Eclipse 500 start up – remember those, the old E-500, the little VLJ that started it all – man, Jimmy, the whine of a pair of Pratt & Whitney 610Fs spooling up was like a symphony.”
Will airplane noise be a thing of the past some day? Theoretically, yes, a time could come when nothing powered by today’s powerplants can still fly. An Eclipse 500’s life expectancy is anyone’s guess, but in 2056, it is easy to visualize a fifty-year-old E-500 still grabbing lift to launch skyward.
The Sax-40 project is a very exciting part of a very exciting time for aviation….a look at the future, quite literally. One part of that picture that I am most enthused about is this:
The Sax-40 will travel an estimated 149 passenger-miles per UK gallon of fuel, equivalent to a Toyota Prius Hybrid car carrying two passengers.Any time technology can create more efficient aircraft, it is a great thing. So when the Sax-40 actually flies in 2030, we won’t be able to compare it to a Prius, they’ll only be in car museums as the automobile that began a trend to reverse the effects of global warming.
