{"id":17220,"date":"2020-12-18T22:32:01","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T22:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=17220"},"modified":"2020-12-18T22:32:30","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T22:32:30","slug":"kansas-unveils-supersonic-flight-corridor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/kansas\/kansas-unveils-supersonic-flight-corridor\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Kansas Unveils Supersonic Flight Corridor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Testing area for supersonic flight brings fresh innovation to State<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governor Laura Kelly and Kansas Department of Transportation\nSecretary Julie Lorenz announced this week that KDOT and the Federal Aviation\nAdministration (FAA) have finalized an agreement to establish the Kansas\nSupersonic Transportation Corridor (SSTC) for use in testing non-military\naircraft that fly faster than the speed of sound (\u201cmach\u201d speed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be able to deliver this new opportunity for our country\nis yet another example of Kansas cementing its reputation as a national leader\nin the aviation industry,\u201d Governor Kelly said. \u201cThis high-altitude flight\ncorridor gives Kansas a strategic advantage in attracting companies involved in\nthe development of supersonic aircraft, and will play a significant role in our\nstate\u2019s ability to encourage economic development as we recover from the\nCOVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Julie Lorenz<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

KDOT Secretary Lorenz, who chairs the Aviation Committee for\nAASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials),\ncommended the collaborative efforts resulting in Kansas securing the SSTC. She\nacknowledged Kansas Senator Jerry Moran\u2019s involvement in the process in\ncoordination with the FAA, NASA, the Air Route Traffic Control Center and the\nNational Institute of Aviation Research at Wichita State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Moran said industry forecasts show a market for as\nmany as 300 sophisticated supersonic aircraft over a 10-year period,\nrepresenting as much as $40 billion in revenue and requiring a \u201cdeep bench of\nskilled manufacturing talent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis year marks 73 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound\nbarrier, and with this supersonic flight corridor Kansas will have a unique\nrole in the next generation of supersonic transportation,\u201d Senator Moran said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Kansas SSTC is a 770-nautical-mile racetrack-shaped\ncorridor at or above an altitude of 39,000 feet. The FAA\u2019s Kansas City Air\nRoute Traffic Control Center assessed this route to protect the safety and\nefficiency of the National Airspace system. This corridor is entirely in\nfederal airspace above Kansas, running the length of the state, just north of\nthe Kansas-Oklahoma border. The route will support sustained flight up to Mach\n3 and is within reach of numerous airports equipped to provide fuel, ground and\ntechnical support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Brock, KDOT Director of Aviation, said the SSTC gives\ninnovators like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aerion, Spike and Boom Aerospace the\nairspace necessary to test aircraft designs that reduce the impact of sound on\nnearby communities. Brock said the Kansas supersonic corridor also offers\nlogistical advantages by being the first and only such commercial supersonic\nflight test route in the nation\u2019s interior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowering the boom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jim Bridenstine<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited about quiet supersonic technology and\nits ability to be transformative for flight and our economy,\u201d said Jim\nBridenstine, Administrator of NASA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bridenstine said NASA is working with industry to build\nsupersonic aircraft with \u201clow-boom\u201d or \u201cno boom\u201d flight characteristics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To provide safety margins for these operations, the KDOT\nDivision of Aviation, FAA Central Region, Air Route Traffic Control Center and\nLemasters Group Consulting wrote new procedures for operators. Aircraft will\nonly enter the SSTC at specific points and will be required to clear flight\nroutes prior to takeoff. The SSTC is located in generally low-volume airspace,\nwhich will minimize any effect on existing flight routes and airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KDOT has partnered with Wichita State University\u2019s National\nInstitute of Aviation Research (NIAR) to collect noise data and live telemetry\nfrom the aircraft that will be used by both the FAA and aircraft manufacturers\nto evaluate performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe help manufacturers refine aircraft designs every day and\nflight tests are one of our core strengths,\u201d said Dr. John Tomblin, WSU Senior\nVice President for Industry and Defense Programs and NIAR Executive Director.\n\u201cThis partnership with KDOT provides a sophisticated and cost-effective flight\ntest capability within reach of every major aircraft manufacturer in the\ncountry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FAA recently proposed a new rule that modernizes the\nprocedure for requesting special flight authorizations to operate at supersonic\nspeeds over the United States. Kansas state officials are hopeful data from the\nKansas corridor will help policymakers and the FAA make informed rulings on\nissues that will drive the future of the aviation industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kansas has consistently served in a leadership role for the\naviation industry. Research efforts such as these may shape the future of air\ntravel in ways that both reduce impact on the environment and facilitate global\ntravel in a far more efficient and affordable manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bob Brock<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“This flight test corridor will be used to find the\nright balance between creating new manufacturing jobs and protecting our\nenvironment by testing new technologies like synthetic jet fuel, low-boom and\n‘boomless cruise’ flight,\u201d said Brock. \u201cRobust flight test and\ntelemetry-collection facilities are now coupled with community outreach and\neducation programming.  This statewide\narchitecture will deliver objective real-time data to both manufactures and FAA\nas necessary to advance this sector of advanced air mobility.”  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Testing area for supersonic flight brings fresh innovation to State Governor Laura Kelly and Kansas Department of Transportation Secretary Julie Lorenz announced this week that KDOT and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have finalized an agreement to establish the Kansas Supersonic Transportation Corridor (SSTC) for use in testing non-military aircraft that fly faster than the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-kansas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Overture.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17226,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17220\/revisions\/17226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}