I thought this was mighty interesting...
Winging it
Jan 3rd 2008
From The Economist print edition
The best thing about a new supersonic plane is how well it flies slowly
NOTHING, it seems, can slow the demand for business jets. Even a recession in America is unlikely to put a dent in the planemakers' bulging order books. In 2007, as new customers from China, Russia and India queued up, sales outside America for the first time outstripped those in the traditional home of business aviation. Oppressive airport security and chronic flight congestion have given bosses a good excuse to turn their backs on commercial flying. But once airborne, they still cannot fly any faster than hoi polloi.
The belief that some of them would like to has inspired Aerion, a firm based in Reno, Nevada, to devise the world's first supersonic business jet. Having refined and validated its design, it began accepting letters of intent for its first 40 planes in the last few weeks of 2007. So far more than 20 prospective customers have forked out $250,000 deposits for the $80m aircraft. Aerion predicts sales of around 300 planes over ten years, a forecast it describes as “cautious”.
Those first eager customers are expecting to get their hands on a plane that can fly up to 12 passengers more than 7,400km (4,600 miles) at speeds of up to 1,700kph (1,050mph), or 1.6 times the speed of sound, over sea and approved land corridors. Unlike the ill-fated Concorde, it can also cruise as efficiently as existing business jets at high subsonic speeds. That is critical for flying over America, where supersonic flight is banned because of the noise pollution created by sonic booms. For other parts of the world, Aerion has another trick up its sleeve: it says its design allows “boomless” cruising at 1,200kph, or 1.15 times the speed of sound, which would be permitted under international rules.
The key to Aerion's abilities is its unusually shaped “natural laminar flow” wing, which reduces drag by up to 20% compared with previous delta-wing technology. Another advantage of the Aerion design is that it uses proven Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines that meet the latest noise and emission regulations. Perhaps the biggest problem Aerion faces is finding an airframe-maker with the spare capacity to build its plane. But it expects to announce a risk-sharing partner this year (Embraer is one possibility), so that the plane will be flying by the second quarter of 2012. First deliveries are scheduled for 2014. Just over a decade after the retirement of Concorde, it may once again be possible for a select few to leave Paris at 8am and arrive in New York in time for breakfast.
Company Website: http://www.aerioncorp.com/index.html
Winging it
Jan 3rd 2008
From The Economist print edition
The best thing about a new supersonic plane is how well it flies slowly
NOTHING, it seems, can slow the demand for business jets. Even a recession in America is unlikely to put a dent in the planemakers' bulging order books. In 2007, as new customers from China, Russia and India queued up, sales outside America for the first time outstripped those in the traditional home of business aviation. Oppressive airport security and chronic flight congestion have given bosses a good excuse to turn their backs on commercial flying. But once airborne, they still cannot fly any faster than hoi polloi.
The belief that some of them would like to has inspired Aerion, a firm based in Reno, Nevada, to devise the world's first supersonic business jet. Having refined and validated its design, it began accepting letters of intent for its first 40 planes in the last few weeks of 2007. So far more than 20 prospective customers have forked out $250,000 deposits for the $80m aircraft. Aerion predicts sales of around 300 planes over ten years, a forecast it describes as “cautious”.
Those first eager customers are expecting to get their hands on a plane that can fly up to 12 passengers more than 7,400km (4,600 miles) at speeds of up to 1,700kph (1,050mph), or 1.6 times the speed of sound, over sea and approved land corridors. Unlike the ill-fated Concorde, it can also cruise as efficiently as existing business jets at high subsonic speeds. That is critical for flying over America, where supersonic flight is banned because of the noise pollution created by sonic booms. For other parts of the world, Aerion has another trick up its sleeve: it says its design allows “boomless” cruising at 1,200kph, or 1.15 times the speed of sound, which would be permitted under international rules.
The key to Aerion's abilities is its unusually shaped “natural laminar flow” wing, which reduces drag by up to 20% compared with previous delta-wing technology. Another advantage of the Aerion design is that it uses proven Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines that meet the latest noise and emission regulations. Perhaps the biggest problem Aerion faces is finding an airframe-maker with the spare capacity to build its plane. But it expects to announce a risk-sharing partner this year (Embraer is one possibility), so that the plane will be flying by the second quarter of 2012. First deliveries are scheduled for 2014. Just over a decade after the retirement of Concorde, it may once again be possible for a select few to leave Paris at 8am and arrive in New York in time for breakfast.
Company Website: http://www.aerioncorp.com/index.html
