Japan yesterday successfully tested a revolutionary design for a supersonic airliner to replace Concorde, three years after the first attempt ended in a fiery crash in the Australian desert, officials said.
A scale model of an airliner that would carry 300 passengers at twice the speed of sound was launched from the Woomera test site in the outback with the aid of a rocket shortly after dawn, Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
"It went well, it was successful," JAXA spokeswoman Mayuni Onodera said by telephone from the test site.
In the test, the 11.5m scale model of the 104m airliner separated from the rocket at around 18,000m and glided at Mach 2 (2,450kph) for about 15 minutes.
The multi-million dollar test aircraft landed safely by parachute, Onodera said.
In the first attempt at Woomera in July 2002, the rocket carrying the scale model veered wildly out of control a few seconds after takeoff and crashed in flames.
The trial put to the test the aerodynamic design of an aircraft intended to fly twice the distance and seat three times the number of passengers as Concorde, the iconic Anglo-French jet that was retired in 2003.
"The scaled experimental supersonic transport test has finished successfully," Kimio Sakata, director of the flight trial operation at JAXA told a news conference linked to Tokyo from Woomera.
"The success this time, I believe, has enabled us to show the world that confidence and trust in Japan's technology have returned," he said.
Designers hope a commercial version of the National Experimental Supersonic Transport (Nexst) will also be less polluting and less noisy than the Concorde, which flew at a similar speed.
Greater seating capacity and lower prices would also make it available to ordinary travellers rather than the rich and famous who were Concorde regulars.
Data gained from yesterday's test will be used in joint research by Japan and France towards a next-generation supersonic jet.
However, researchers cautioned yesterday the successful test was only one step and a new supersonic commercial aircraft was still a long way off.
"We could accumulate data on aerodynamic design technology in today's test launch, but it is not enough to start an international joint development program," said Koji Izumi, JAXA's chief engineer. "For a next-generation supersonic airliner to be realized, there need to be technologies that lowers noise and emission and that enable efficient flight."
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