What price supersonic speed? A design anatomy of supersonic transportation Part 1

Abstract

The first generation of supersonic commercial transportation has seen three serious attempts to arrive at an economically and environmentally viable aircraft. The US B2707-200/300 design was cancelled early before a prototype could emerge; the Russian Tu-144 design succeeded to become the first supersonic transport but spanned only a few years of restricted airline service; the Anglo-French Concorde endured more than 27 glamorous airline service years until the last of its species was retired on 30 August 2003. This first generation was followed by a second generation of supersonic commercial transport projects in the time period between 1986 until about 1999, designs which did not proceed towards the production hardware stage. This study critically examines the anatomy of two generations of supersonic commercial transport design failures and successes in order to arrive at lessons learned free of ‘wishful thinking’. The design conditions leading to the identification of the product ‘solution space’ for an economically and environmentally acceptable supersonic commercial transport are discussed. Having assembled an understanding of the product metrics valid for supersonic commercial transports, the paper then provides an outlook for the first generation of supersonic corporate and cargo jet projects. This first generation of supersonic business jet (SSBJ) and supersonic cargo jet (SSCJ) projects spans a period of nearly two decades of development, starting from 1988 until today. The present study identifies that the product development metrics of this class of aircraft is radically different compared to the metrics valid for supersonic commercial transports. The challenges in VIP transportation and dedicated freight transportation at supersonic speeds are portrayed leading to two principal trains of thought targeting the development of the first supersonic business jet and/or supersonic cargo jet hardware: the development based on a new airframe, and alternatively the development based on an existing airframe.

Innovation in supersonic passenger air travel

“…It is not clear whether the Gulfstream studies accounted for the difference in research, development, test and evaluation (RDT and E) costs between a low-boom SBJ and a concept with restricted performance overland. Chudoba et al 3,4 present an extensive analysis of market trends and drivers and their implications for the SBJ. Operational aspects are also discussed.…”

What price supersonic speed? an applied market research case study Part 2

“…The Walsh Aviation report agrees related to medium aircraft, but takes a more conservative stance for longer to ensure success. To this end, it is the authors' hope that the reader clearly understands the research approach adopted to avoid 'wishful thinking' at all cost, enabling to systematically survey, interpret, and incorporate the rich pool of history lessons learned related to the technology and operation of civil and military supersonic aircraft project case studies (2,3,4) .…”

“…However, at what point does the purchase price and operating cost of the vehicle outweigh the time savings? Clearly, supersonic business jets will be more expensive to operate compared to their high-subsonic counterparts (2) . Thus, to remain competitive, it is the purchase price coupled with key performance characteristics which become a primary indicator for programme success.…”

“…The proposed SSBJ projects (2) promise to significantly increase cruise speed and reduce flight times compared to current high subsonic business jets. Such time savings have been identified If the additional operational cost implicit with the SSBJ are deemed acceptable for the mission, then the issue becomes one of purchase price only.…”

Sonic Boom and Drag Evaluation of Supersonic Jet Concepts

“…They, however, focused on a specific type configuration. There are also some qualitative studies on different SSBJ configurations [1,2,[14][15][16]. This paper aims to evaluate the aerodynamics and sonic boom of different SSBJ configurations quantitatively and find out the most promising configuration for low-boom and low-drag supersonic airliner design.…”