A review of supersonic business jet design Issues

Abstract

Key issues relating to the Supersonic Business Jet (SBJ) concept are reviewed with the intent to assess the readiness of enabling technologies and hence the concept itself. The multidisciplinary nature of aircraft design precludes an in-depth analysis of each specific aspect, which could individually be the subject of a separate discipline review, hence an overview is presented. The review looks at the market, environmental issues, with particular reference to the sonic boom phenomenon & solutions, technological issues, including prediction methods, flight testing, systems, certification and interested aerospace companies and design organisations. It is apparent that the need to reduce the sonic boom signature is vital if the vehicle is to be permitted to operate over land and hence be economically viable. It is clear that sonic boom acceptability requirements must be set if resources are to be effectively focused and designs are to converge. Despite this challenge, considerable investment is aimed at de-risking many of the enabling technologies and raising readiness levels. Many technologies are moving beyond theoretical and numerical analysis into the experimental and flight test domains. Collaboration between the civil and military sectors is increasing. Clearly, supersonic air travel is not an efficient means of personal conveyance; however, concerns for the environment are difficult to balance against the ‘value of time’ benefits offered by the SBJ concept. Air travel, of which this is a specialised form, is important to the global economy. Continued effort in the areas of human factors, customer demand and certification & requirements would be beneficial.

Simulations of a low-boom, axisymmetric, external compression inlet

“…The idea is to break the typically strong shock that forms at the aircraft nose into a series of weaker oblique shocks, effectively lowering the aircraft's near-field sonic boom magnitude. The spike was attached to a NASA F-15 aircraft for testing in 2006 (2) . Both the flight test and corresponding computational analysis showed the spike helps shape the initial shock at the front of the aircraft, but tailoring the shape of the entire aircraft, including the inlets and wings, is necessary to reduce the sonic boom signature (3) .…”

“…The engine inlet is one of the main contributors to the strong external shock waves generated when an aircraft travels supersonically (2,3) . More recent work has yielded new inlet designs aimed to ensure efficient integration of the propulsion system into the airframe and to minimise the magnitude of the near-field shock overpressure projected to the ground.…”

“…. (2) Upstream conditions are held constant, while the static pressure at the AIP is varied to generate the different points defining the cane curve. The 'peak' recovery position can be defined as the operating condition in which REC is at a maximum.…”

Sonic Boom and Drag Evaluation of Supersonic Jet Concepts

“…HE supersonic business jet (SSBJ) is regarded as the pioneer of the next generation supersonic transport [1,2]. The sonic boom is the biggest concern for the return of the civil supersonic transport.…”

“…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.…”