What happens to old aeroplanes?

Thousands of flights take off across the world, but where do the old planes go? Well, many end up in places called boneyards - these are huge areas, often in places like deserts. The thing is when they're in areas like deserts, they're almost completely protected from corrosion. To many people's surprise, these boneyards are mostly filled with Boeing 747s as these jumbo gets gradually get replaced with newer planes. Although these might seem a little pointless, they're the key behind how airlines can continue to revolutionize air travel.

Prince George Turns 1...

Could he be going on a flight to Australia- and get there in 5 hours? 

Prince George, the baby that has everything! He even had around 4,000 presents from across the world  to celebrate his first birthday yesterday. This year he went on his first royal tour, to Australia and New Zealand. In the future, could our future king reach Australia in 5 hours? It sounds very science fiction - but it's really not! 

Concorde was one of the fastest planes in our history, it was decommissioned in 2003. Since then supersonic travel became a thing of the past. But work has now begun on a passenger aircraft - one created by the European Space Agency, to create a hypersonic passenger plane. It's designed to fly 5 times faster than the speed of sound and six times faster than a standard airliner. 

This isn't the first time hypersonic flight has been attempted. In 1960, tests took place on an aircraft that was called X-15, half plane and half missile. The craft carried one pilot and flew for 90 seconds until the fuel burnt out. The creators of the X-15 thought that this would herald a new era of high-speed civil aviation. However more than 50 years later a hypersonic passenger plane has yet to be tested or even built. 

Now a team led by the European Space Agency, known as Lapcat, are working on an aircraft called the A2, which could take up where the X-15 left off. Could this herald a new - real era of passenger air travel. 

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Follow the rest of my #SummerofScience and me on Twitter @Sci_Sparks. Don’t forget to download my charity eBook, Science Bites: A Short Tour of the Universe HERE. 

Prince George Turns 1! His official Birthday pictures...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE!

#SummerofScience Day 6