“United Airlines said Friday that it plans to offer inflight Wi-Fi from SpaceX’s Starlink for free on its hundreds of jetliners, the biggest inflight internet deal yet for the SpaceX business.

The team-up comes as airlines have been investing in faster inflight Wi-Fi, sometimes offering it for free, in a bid to attract higher paying customers like business travelers.

Delta Air Lines announced in early 2023 that onboard internet would be free for members of its SkyMiles loyalty program. Hawaiian Airlines, which has a deal with Starlink, also offers complimentary inflight Wi-Fi. JetBlue Airways has offered free Wi-Fi for years.

SpaceX also previously made a deal with semi-private airline JSX.

United currently offers inflight internet from a hodgepodge of providers, including ViaSat

and Panasonic, and charges loyalty program members $8 and everyone else $10 for access on domestic and short-haul international flights.”

From CNBC.

“Boom’s XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft successfully executed its second flight at the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California. Following its historic first flight in March 2024, XB-1 continues to progress through its flight test program, targeting supersonic flight by the end of the year…

During this flight, XB-1’s landing gear was successfully retracted and extended for the first time, which is typical of second test flights. Additional objectives for this flight test were for the XB-1 team to assess aircraft handling qualities and activate a new digital stability augmentation system – or roll damper – for the first time. This roll damper was implemented to improve handling qualities based on learnings from first flight.

In addition, tufting was applied to XB-1’s right wing to observe and evaluate the direction and strength of airflow across the wing, verifying its aerodynamic characteristics. XB-1 flew for approximately 15 minutes, reaching an altitude of 10,400 feet and speeds of 232 knots (277 mph).”

From Boom Supersonic.

“Flying can be a nerve-wracking experience for many people – but a new study out Thursday finds commercial air travel keeps getting safer, with the risk of death halving every decade.

The fatality rate fell to 1 per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally in the 2018-2022 period, a major improvement from 1 per 7.9 million boardings in 2008-2017, according to a paper by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

It’s also a far cry from the dawn of commercial air travel: fatalities per passenger were 1 per 350,000 boardings in 1968-1977.”

From ScienceAlert.

“For the first time, researchers based at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science have demonstrated the ability to monitor airflow through a supersonic combusting jet engine using an optical sensor instead of a pressure sensor.

This unprecedented level of sensing and control offers engineers of scramjet propulsion engines used in hypersonic prototype aircraft a whole new way to maintain the performance of engines operating above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound when a shock train is spotted. Aircraft that operate above this threshold are described as being ‘hypersonic.’

‘It seemed logical to us that if an aircraft operates at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and higher, it might be preferable to embed sensors that work closer to the speed of light than the speed of sound,’ said Professor Christopher Goyne, director of the UVA Aerospace Research Laboratory, where the research took place.”

From The Debrief.