In this issue:
• Engineering Supersonic Air Travel
• Sensor Tip: More Reliable Design By Knowing Ingress Protection
• Application: Controlling Ship Propulsion System
• and more

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Featured video: Meet Overture's refined design

The Concorde supersonic jet airplane provided commercial airline service from 1976 to 2003. Its maximum airspeed was Mach 2.04.^1,2 It carried up to 100 passengers and had a rage of 4,143 mi.² A variety of issues including high flight costs and the market size for customers willing to pay a high price for faster travel contributed to Concorde's service ending.

A company called Boom is now bringing supersonic commercial flight back. They plan on overcoming the issues that made the Concorde unviable. Boom has manufactured a third scale test plane named XB-1 that is undergoing ground testing. Test flights are the next step. The full size commercial jetliner is called Overture. It is being designed to cruise at 60,000 feet, have a cruising speed of Mach 1.7 and a range of 4,250 NM. Passenger capacity is expected to be 65 to 80 people.

The top image links to Boom's design introduction of Overture video. The image in the Tech News section links to a video describing technical aspects comparing the Concorde and Overture supersonic jet aircraft.

United Airlines and American Airlines have made deposits on Overture planes with a planned introduction in 2029.³ View a video of the planned Overature from Boom here.

Sources:
1) https://www.britannica.com/technology/Concorde
2) https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/about-ba/history-and-heritage/celebrating-concorde
3) https://boomsupersonic.com/overture  

Knowing ingress standards can mean the difference between a sensor providing trouble-free service for its life or not. This is especially the case when any position or angle sensor is selected for an application that is used in environments where water, high-pressure wash-downs or dust may be present.

There are two major standards for ingress protection. One is the IEC's IP (ingress protection) standard 60529 and the other is NEMA (National Electronic Manufacturers Association) enclosure ratings. NEMA ratings are generally applied to equipment enclosures, so this article will focus on IP ratings. A position or angle sensor's IP rating generally has two digits. The first one represents level of protection against incursion of solids and the second digit denotes protection against incursion of liquids.

As the first digit increases from 0 to 6, IP rated protection increases against solids/objects from 0 being no protection, to smaller and smaller objects the device must protect against incursion— with 5 representing dust protected and 6 being dust tight. The second IP digit uses analogous steps except for incursion of water. It runs from 0 being no protection to 8 representing continuous immersion in water. In between there is spraying water, splashing water, water jets (6.3 mm nozzle) and powerful water jets (12.5 mm nozzle).

One applied example is Novotechnik's KL Series of linear position sensors. The KL Series is rated at IP 65. This means it is protected against, not just limited, but, total dust ingress and it is protected against low pressure water jets in any direction. Another example is Novotechik's RFD 4000 Series of touchless angle sensors. These sensors are rated at IP 69K. This device is protected against total dust ingress and it is protected against steam jet cleaning. The "K" represents protection against steam. This level is needed for food industry applications.

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