Tupolev would have to create a supersonic business jet from scratch. Russian Aviation Supersonic business jet
If you're a talented young engineer working for one of the world's leading airlines, and suddenly you get the idea to tell the director about a great new idea for developing a supersonic passenger plane, you can bet that you will almost immediately be asked to leave the management office or completely kicked out of your job. However, the situation changes if you work for a small company. In this case, such a number may work; moreover, for such a project it will be possible to get some investments and even draw a number of beautiful sketches. This is exactly what the young designers from the Aerion Corporation did, who have been exploiting the idea of building the Aerion AS2 SBJ (supersonic business jet) aircraft for a very long time.
This company has long dreamed of creating a private supersonic aircraft for members of the business community. They have been running around with this idea for quite a few years, regularly releasing reports and new renderings of the car. Not long ago they presented the public with yet another innovation, having decided to make changes to the project. Thus, the Aerion AS2 SBJ aircraft will have to receive 3 engines at once instead of the originally planned two.
Jokes aside, this decision of the designers should be recognized as logically correct. While there are obvious disadvantages of such a solution - a general increase in the cost of the project, heavier weight of the vehicle, an increase in the number of engines - there is also a very important positive effect in the form of a decrease in the specific thrust of each engine during takeoff. Less thrust on the engine means less noise. It is worth noting that the rumble is one of the Achilles heels of many supersonic aircraft when it comes to passenger cars. Initially, the project developers planned to install 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines in the supersonic version on the aircraft. It is worth noting that this engine was created 50 years ago, and since then it has been installed on many popular aircraft, in particular the B727, MD80, DC9 and many others.
To the main distinctive features of the Aerion AS2 project, which distinguish it from a number of similar projects, can be attributed to the wing of its original design. Aerion Corporation engineers decided to abandon the delta or ogive wing in favor of using their own design - Aerion “unswept” SNLF (supersonic natural laminar flow). According to the company’s specialists, such a shape and profile of the wing provides a significant increase in the laminar flow area, which in turn makes it possible to reduce total area airframe by 20% at once. They confirm their statements with data that were obtained while blowing the model in the NASA wind tunnel.
It is obvious that modern technologies do not stand still; they are constantly striving for improvement. So, it is not worth ruling out the possibility that in the near future airlines will begin to operate similar supersonic aircraft that can reduce long-distance flight time to 1-2 hours. At the same time, in discussions about the future of large passenger supersonic airliners and their design in last years there is a lull. Along with this, a large number of projects of small supersonic aircraft belonging to the business class appeared.
A supersonic aircraft of this class for 6-15 passengers is hardly easier to develop and create than a similar aircraft for 150 passengers, but it will cost significantly less, and experts predict the demand for such aircraft to be quite large. In Europe and the USA, in the last few years, a large number of projects of similar small supersonic aircraft have appeared, which this moment are at various stages of implementation. To be fair, it is worth noting that all projects are still only in the paper stage.
All projects of such machines, with all the variety of original components and parts, have one thing in common - they either look like grown-up fighters, for example, the F-15 or Su-27, or are significantly “shrunken” in size, the Tu-144 and Concorde. The same double tail, the same delta-shaped wings, etc. Against this background, it is the Aerion AS2 SBJ project that stands out from the overall picture with a fresh look. Aerion AS2 is a small 12-seater aircraft, in the appearance of which the main attention is drawn to the straight wing, which is more correctly called diamond-shaped, and the same tail.
Aerion AS2 is a supersonic business jet aircraft that attracts attention with its unusual diamond-shaped wing. Some people think that this model cannot compare with fighter jets in terms of efficiency and flight speed, but in fact they are mistaken. What is the project of this aircraft outwardly reminiscent of the F-104 fighter that has long sunk into oblivion, which received the unflattering nickname “flying coffin” for numerous cases of pilot deaths, does not mean anything. The aerodynamics of the wing of this aircraft were made using the latest and most advanced technologies. The wingspan of the new aircraft is 19.8 m, the length of the aircraft is 44.15 m. These dimensions are of a design nature and may change by the time the aircraft is launched into production.
According to the creators of this supersonic aircraft, its main advantage over competitors should be the most quiet flight at supersonic speed. Until the plane reaches Mach 1.1, no sonic boom will be heard on the ground. Thanks to this aircraft, the road is opened to mass operation without the emergence of claims and conflicts that relate to permits and approvals from the authorities of those states over whose territory the flight route will be laid.
When flying over settlements the aircraft can maintain a speed from 0.99 M to 1.1 M, which is still significantly faster than usual passenger aircraft and small business class cars. At the same time, when flying over the ocean or sparsely populated areas, the aircraft will be able to reach speeds of up to 1.6 M. Moreover, even at this flight speed, the force of the sonic boom will be noticeably lower than that of smaller supersonic fighters and significantly less than that of the same “ Concorde."
Today main question The question is whether such an aircraft will be in demand on the market. The company gives skeptics this example - a flight from Tokyo to New York with a landing in Anchorage (rest 1 hour) on the new Aerion AS2 aircraft will take only 9 hours 33 minutes, including the rest time itself, while a flight without rest (but with making one refueling) on business class aircraft takes 14 hours 21 minutes. At the same time, the maximum flight range is almost 8 thousand kilometers with a cruising flight speed of 1.4 M. Very serious indicators.
Moreover, the plane will be able to take off not only from large airports. The landing speed of the machine, which, according to the designers, is 237 km/h, allows it to land on airfields with a runway length of only 1.5 km. Landing a Concorde-type aircraft on such a runway would be very difficult and, in practice, practically impossible. The take-off run of the aircraft is also relatively small - about 1.8 km, which is a fairly good indicator for a supersonic machine. This is the advantage of using a diamond-shaped wing in combination with flaps that are made along its entire span.
At the same time, there is one more important point, which is one of the main reasons why supersonic airliners have not pushed ordinary passenger cars at subsonic speed to the curb - the cost of air tickets. Currently, returning to the idea of supersonic passenger transportation, but in relation to compact business class aircraft, manufacturers in various countries believe that the rich and those who value their free time people will be able to overpay for higher flight speeds and a reduction in flight time by 1.5 or even 2 times. It was against this background that the Aerion aircraft project arose, the creators of which announced that a flight on their aircraft would be no more expensive, and even slightly cheaper, than on existing subsonic jet aircraft designed to carry from 10 to 20 passengers.
The company's engineers claim that their model's air resistance at supersonic flight speeds, despite the use of a diamond-shaped wing, will be 20% lower than that of aircraft equipped with a delta-shaped wing of similar sizes. Also added here are the well-known turbojet engines of Pratt & Whitney, which is rightfully considered one of the industry leaders. All this allowed Aerion Corporation to talk about developing a fast, but at the same time quite economical aircraft costing approximately $80 million. However, before mass production and sales begin, the cost of the new product may increase significantly. At the same time, company specialists estimate the current market for supersonic business class aircraft at approximately 300-400 aircraft per year.
Previously, the company even reported that there were 19 buyers for the aircraft, which is currently under construction, and the total amount of contracts concluded was $1.5 billion. For the first time, a supersonic business class aircraft was presented to the public at the Dubai Air Show. Of course, the price of this aircraft cannot compare with the amount that a person decided to pay who wanted to buy the world's largest airliner, the A380. But unlike the Airbus, the new Aerion AS2 has its main advantage - flight speed.
The maximum speed of the aircraft should be 1.6 M (about 1900 km/h). Considering the fact that in all countries of the world there is a law banning supersonic flights over continental territories, the aircraft will not be able to reach its maximum speed everywhere. At the same time, it will be able to fly at supersonic speed over the surface of the ocean, as well as over states that have vast, sparsely populated territories. Among such countries are Russia, Canada and Australia. In these countries, it is possible to obtain special permission for such flights.
Information sources:
http://ru-aviation.livejournal.com/2975482.html
http://transserver.net/modules/myarticles/article_storyid_99.html
http://totugo.ru/avia/52
http://news.kuda.ua/10464
The idea of creating a supersonic passenger aircraft for VIPs based on a combat vehicle has been expressed more than once. A well-known fact from history: the legendary Soviet high-altitude fighter MiG-25 was developed to intercept the promising American supersonic bomber XB-70 Valkyrie. The Americans quickly abandoned their Valkyrie, and the MiG was left practically out of work. In search of new applications, Soviet designers even tried to adapt the aircraft as an ultra-high-speed business jet for the country's leadership. However, having assessed the age and physical condition of the majority of members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, the leaders of the aviation industry abandoned this idea.
And far and quickly!
Later, both in our country and abroad, it was proposed to build a supersonic business aircraft based not only on the Tu-160, but even on the less advanced Tu-22. For a long time, all this was not taken seriously, but finally Russian designers thought about it, decided to take a risk, and even received funding for it. Thus began work on the Tu-164. The main problems were speed and range.
The rollout of the new Tu-160M1+ (pictured) was widely covered by the media, and its appearance is already well known. The same cannot be said about the Tu-164.
The legendary Tu-144 flew at supersonic speed for the entire cruising portion of its flight, but flew close, less than 5,000 km. Such distances are of little interest for a serious business jet. The Tu-160 covers distances of almost 14,000 km, but its cruising mode is subsonic; it can go supersonic only for a short time, when the engines operate in afterburner mode and literally devour fuel. This is also not suitable for a business jet. Thus, the first step towards the Tu-164 was remotorization. The NK-32 was replaced by the promising NK-244MOD engines, providing supersonic cruising flight, fantastic efficiency and a flight range of up to 9,000 km without refueling.
Original solution
“The peculiarity of the task before us,” says design bureau employee Ivan Zateev, “was to as soon as possible rework the Tu-160 into a civilian version without radically changing the design. Otherwise, we would have to create something new from scratch, which would require completely different costs. As you know, the cabin space of an aircraft is not a single volume. For passenger compartments, we used two former compartments for bombs and missiles (we successfully solved the problem of sealing them), physically separated by a titanium center section and mechanics for controlling the wing geometry. Thus, there will be no communication between cabins during the flight. Can we consider this a disadvantage? After all, no business jet has anything like this. So let this be our feature, our advantage! For example, if a serious government or business delegation is going on a flight, then the front cabin can be equipped for the needs of VIPs, the back cabin will be more like an office and a staff of assistants and assistants will be located there. They will be able to communicate with management during the flight via video link. Another variant. There is already great interest in the Tu-164 from representatives of wealthy families from oil producing countries Persian Gulf. However, conservative traditions are widespread in these countries, in particular the separation of the female and male halves of the family in the space of their homes. So during the flight, one of the cabins will be given to the male part of the traveling family, the other to the female part. Communication between the sexes will also have to be limited to video conferencing.”
New products in the Russian aviation industry are under the close attention of the country's leadership. Will the Tu-164 lift the top officials of the state into the sky?
A revolution in passenger safety
If interest in the aircraft from large companies and VIPs increases, in addition to the basic modification, it is planned to offer the Tu-164BB variant (stands for “uncompromising safety”) on the market. The difference from the “base” will be that for the first time in history, a civil aircraft can be equipped with rescue ejection seats for passengers. However, since we are not talking about military pilots, for whom comfort is not a priority, but about people accustomed to luxury, special transformable ejection seats are provided for the Tu-164BB. Under normal conditions, they are no different from a soft leather chair, but if an emergency occurs, devices are pulled out of the chair within two seconds, attaching a parachute and rigidly fixing the torso and limbs. After which the ejection occurs. Now such chairs are being developed by one of the startups in Luxembourg, but the KB expects that similar designs will be created in the Russian Federation. Of course, Tu-164BB buyers will have to undergo special training, including a test ejection. The training will take place at the Cosmonaut Training Center, although the estimated cost of training will be $1 million. “But our future customers shouldn’t have any problems with this amount,” says Ivan Zateev.
Laser against rumble
One of the main reasons for the fiasco that befell the first generation of supersonic civil aviation, the noise problem became unresolved. A supersonic plane, like an explosion, forms a shock wave in front of itself, which, upon reaching the ground, hits the ears and makes the windows rattle. At one time, the United States did not allow Concorde to fly over land, and operators had to limit themselves to transoceanic flights. What will be the fate of the Tu-164 in this sense - after all, the environmental requirements for military and civil aircraft have always been seriously different? “We have practically managed to solve the problem of radically reducing noise,” says Ivan Zateev. “We relied on the work of Russian scientists who showed in experiments that optical breakdown of the air in front of the aircraft (using frequent powerful laser pulses) leads to the formation of high-temperature plasmoids, the thermal trace of which sharply reduces the power of the shock wave. No more rattling or rattling! Environmentalists complained, saying that you will incinerate all our birds with your lasers. But we reassured them: the lasers will only work at cruising level - this is approximately 15,000 m, and birds do not fly there. However, if during landing the pilot sees a flock of birds in front of him, he has the opportunity to briefly turn on the lasers. Still, the safety of passengers is more important..."
Due to the specific design of the base model, the entrance to the cabins is not from the side, but through special ladders lowered from the bottom of the aircraft.
There is one more interesting fact about the new aircraft, which was reported to PM on condition of anonymity by a source close to military circles. It is assumed that those Tu-164s that will serve Russian government agencies or strategic companies will be designed in such a way that if the current difficult geopolitical situation worsens, they can be converted into combat aircraft. Bombs and missiles will once again take the place of expensive leather chairs and tables made of precious wood.
Supersonic passenger July 14th, 2015
After they have sunk into oblivion" Concords" and Tu-144 there was no one left in the field of supersonic aviation. It is not clear whether such aircraft are not needed (unprofitable), or whether our civilization has not yet achieved such technical perfection and reliability in this direction.
Small private projects are gradually beginning to appear.
The American company Aerion Corporation from the small town of Reno, Nevada, began accepting orders for the creation of a private supersonic aircraft AS2 Aerion, which is being created with the support of Airbus
It’s not yet clear what will come of this, but here are the details...
The manufacturer says its patented laminar flow technology reduces aerodynamic drag over the wings by up to 80%, allowing the tri-engine powerplant to cover distances quickly. For example, a plane will fly from Paris to Washington in just three hours, and from Singapore to San Francisco in just six hours. Supersonic flights over US territory are prohibited, but this does not apply to flights over the ocean. The body of the aircraft is made mainly of carbon fiber and is “sewn” along the seams with a titanium alloy. Without refueling, the aircraft can fly up to 5,400 miles. The production of the first aircraft is planned for 2021.
Which supersonic aircraft projects have not been implemented in reality? Well, for example, some of the most serious ones:
Sukhoi Supersonic Business Jet (SSBJ, S-21) - supersonic project passenger plane business class, developed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau. In search of financing, Sukhoi OJSC collaborated on this project with Gulfstream Aerospace, Dassault Aviation, as well as a number of Chinese companies.
The development of the S-21 and its larger modification, the S-51, began in 1981 on the initiative of the chief designer of the Sukhoi Design Bureau at that time, Mikhail Petrovich Simonov. The project was headed by Deputy Chief Designer Mikhail Aslanovich Pogosyan.
An analysis of the commercial operation of Tu-144 and Concorde aircraft showed that with rising prices for aviation fuel, supersonic aircraft cannot compete with more economical subsonic airliners in the mass transportation segment. The number of passengers willing to significantly overpay for speed is small and is determined mainly by representatives of large businesses and senior officials. At the same time, the priority routes are airlines connecting world capitals. This determined the concept of the aircraft as intended to transport 8-10 passengers over a range of 7-10 thousand kilometers (to ensure non-stop flight between cities on the same continent and with one refueling when flying from any to any capital of the world). It was also important to reduce the length of the run so that the aircraft could accommodate all international airports peace.
During the work on the aircraft, various layout options were studied - with 2, 3 or 4 engines. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the cessation of government funding for the program. Sukhoi Design Bureau began searching for independent investors for the project. In particular, in the early 1990s, work was carried out in collaboration with the American company Gulfstream Aerospace - while an option with 2 English engines, designated S-21G, was being developed. However, in 1992, the American side withdrew from the project, fearing unaffordable costs. The project was suspended.
In 1993, investors for the project were found in Russia and the project was resumed. The $25 million received from investors made it possible to reach the design completion stage. Ground tests of engines were carried out, as well as tests of aircraft models in wind tunnels.
In 1999, the aircraft project was presented at the Le Bourget air show, at the same time Mikhail Petrovich Simonov stated that about 1 billion more dollars would be required to complete all work on the aircraft and begin production of serial airliners. With timely and full funding, the aircraft could have flown for the first time in 2002, and the cost per unit would have been about $50 million. The possibility of continuing collaboration on the project with the French company Dassault Aviation was considered, but the contract did not materialize.
In 2000, the Sukhoi Design Bureau tried to find investors for this project in China.
Currently, investments to complete the development and creation of aircraft have not been found. In the state program “Development” adopted at the end of 2012 aviation industry for 2013 - 2025" there is no mention of the aircraft
ZEHST(short for Zero Emission HyperSonic Transport- English High-speed, zero-emission transport) is a supersonic-hypersonic passenger airliner project, implemented under the leadership of the European aerospace agency EADS.
The project was first presented on June 18, 2011 at the Le Bourget air show. According to the project, it is assumed that the aircraft will accommodate 50-100 passengers and reach a speed of up to 5029 km/h. The flight altitude should be up to 32 km.
The aircraft's jet system will consist of two turbojet engines used during takeoff and acceleration to 0.8 Mach, then rocket boosters will accelerate the aircraft to 2.5 Mach, after which two ramjet engines located under the wings will increase the speed to 4 Mach.
Tu-444- project of a Russian supersonic passenger aircraft business aviation developments of JSC Tupolev. It replaced the Tu-344 project and was a competitor to the Sukhoi Design Bureau SSBJ project. There is no mention of the project in the state program “Development of the Aviation Industry for 2013-2025” adopted at the end of 2012.
The design of the Tu-444 began in the early 2000s, and in 2004 the preliminary design of the project began. The development was preceded by a calculation of the most profitable technical characteristics for an aircraft of this class. Thus, it was found that a range of 7,500 kilometers is enough to cover the main business centers of the world, and the optimal take-off run length is 1,800 meters. The potential market was estimated at 400-700 aircraft, the first flight was scheduled to take place in 2015
However, despite the use of old developments from a number of design bureaus in the project, including Tupolev itself (for example, Tu-144, it was supposed to use AL-F-31 engines), the need for a number of technical innovations became clear, which turned out to be impossible without significant financial investments who could not be attracted. Despite the development of a preliminary design by 2008, the project stalled.
Well, a little more aviation topics for you: let’s remember, and here’s this one. And you know that it exists and flew like this. Here's another unusual one The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -
We are increasingly hearing statements from aircraft manufacturing companies about their work on creating supersonic business jets. What are these – abstract dreams or realities of the near future? Columnist for the Corporate Jet Investor portal Alud Davies assesses modern projects to create a supersonic aircraft. *** A serious blow to the heads of corporations and banking structures was the cessation of operation in 2003 of Concorde, the only aircraft that made it possible to fly between New York and London or Paris and return within one working day. The removal of the Concorde supersonic airliner from regular service doubled the time spent on such a flight. And since in those years the level of development of mobile communications was not yet very high, this meant that passengers were cut off from any external information for eight hours or more. And if for an ordinary passenger this represented only some inconvenience, then for the heads of leading international corporations and banks such a break from reality could cause multimillion-dollar financial losses. Concord for business people of this level was a real “time machine”. But for all its amazing time-saving capabilities, Concorde had one significant drawback. So significant that it ultimately became the reason for the cessation of operation of this aircraft - not only in the UK and the USA, but also in Japan, and even in Iran - all 20 Concordes built were gradually withdrawn from flights. The Concorde problem was not new - it has plagued supersonic aircraft since their inception, and unfortunately, it appears to be far from resolved to this day.
Breaking the sound barrier
To travel faster than the speed of sound, an object must break the sound barrier, both literally and figuratively. And although it is not so difficult for an aircraft with the appropriate engine power to achieve supersonic speed, the problem arises at the very moment the aircraft transitions to supersonic speed. That is, the sonic boom that occurs at this moment has such high level noise that this was the cause of the disaster of the entire Concorde project. The plane could not take off and land over populated areas - the roar that accompanied the supersonic transition caused windows in houses to fly out. It has been 11 years since Concorde last made a commercial flight. Over the years, research projects related to supersonic aviation, multimillion-dollar investments were used... Are aircraft manufacturers any closer to solving the sonic boom problem? The most famous in this direction was the joint project of NASA and the manufacturer of business jets Gulfstream, which received the unofficial name “Quiet Spike”. The design was based on a model of the NASA F-15B aircraft, on the nose of which a retractable “spear” made of composite materials more than 7.3 meters long was installed. By cutting through the air in front of a flying aircraft, this spike reduces drag and directs the shock wave towards the ground, thereby significantly reducing the level of noise generated during supersonic transition. The first successes of the project were achieved in 2007. In subsequent years, the company did not demonstrate a single project on the market in which this technology was to some extent put into practice, but most likely this is due to the general crisis in the production of private aircraft. Gulfstream's announcement of success has not stopped other companies - they continue to independently explore the possibilities of using supersonic technologies in light aviation.Aerion and Spike: supersonic business jets
Aerion Corporation is an ambitious project to create its own supersonic business jet design; The company is currently looking for a manufacturer willing to build a real aircraft based on its engineering developments. At the same time, the developers decided to bypass the sore point of the need to reduce sound effects: according to their plan, the flight over populated areas will take place at subsonic speeds (about 0.99 M), and the sound barrier will be broken, as in the case of Concorde, only over water space where the flight speed can reach 1.6 M. Such an aircraft is designed to carry up to 12 passengers. The maximum flight range will be 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km), which will allow it to be used for flights between Europe and the United States. But despite the fact that the first publications about the project date back to 2004, as of January 2014, the developers were unable to find a single manufacturer ready to take on the construction of such a business jet. Another ambitious company, Spike Aerospace, announced its supersonic project quite recently: in September 2013. It promises to release its aircraft (working title Spike S-512 SSB) to the market in 2018. At the same time, like Aerion, Spike will have the ability to operate in supersonic mode only over water expanses (the expected speed is up to 1.8 M, the flight range is the same 7,400 kilometers), allowing travelers to make transatlantic flights in 3-4 hours. Thus, despite the efforts of many research groups, it is not yet possible to definitively answer the question stated in the title. None of the announced projects has yet demonstrated its ability to fly at supersonic speeds over populated areas while remaining within modern noise requirements. And therefore, as in the case of Concorde, their operation will be limited to an extremely small number of routes connecting pairs of cities on opposite shores of the ocean. And since today the largest market for business aviation is still the US domestic market, where flights from city to city take place over populated areas, and for Western Europe The most relevant are intra-European flights; it will be extremely difficult for the creators of such an aircraft to find a market to sell their product.Businessmen are asking to convert the famous supersonic bombers into business jets. Theoretically, the famous company could well create such airliners, but it will have to solve a number of problems, and not only technical ones. The Tupolev company can create a supersonic civil business jet for 20–25 passengers. “I think that in the near future it is realistically possible to make only a supersonic administrative aircraft. It would be small in size, but with a long flight range, and would transport 20–25 businessmen over several thousand kilometers in a couple of hours. The creation of such an aircraft is real. Opportunities for this exist, but we need a customer,” Valery Solozobov, deputy general director of the Tupolev company for design, research and development, told TASS. According to him, “if there is a group of businessmen willing to invest in a supersonic administrative aircraft, and this is very serious money, then such a machine could be built.” He said that, most likely, the supersonic aircraft will run on liquid hydrogen, since it has a higher calorific value than kerosene. Earlier, Solozobov said that wealthy foreigners regularly contact the Tupolev company with requests to make a personal supersonic passenger plane from Russian Tu-160 and Tu-22M3 bombers. But the company refuses to develop such an airliner, since it is much cheaper to remake it without using the technologies that were used to create missile carriers. In addition, the Tu-160 has secret technologies. Technically, Tupolev is indeed capable of creating a supersonic civil aircraft that could cover 5-6 thousand km in just two to three hours without intermediate landings. Moreover, Tupolev created such an aircraft back in the 70s - the Tu-144. This airliner became the first supersonic aircraft in the world to be used for commercial passenger transportation. At the same time, the British-French supersonic aircraft Concorde appeared. Moreover, the Russian Tu-144 made its first flight two months earlier than the Concorde. At that time, many predicted the end of the era of subsonic civil aircraft, believing that all airlines would rush to buy supersonic aircraft. However, the market decided differently. In total, the Tu-144 made 55 flights and transported 2 thousand people, having worked less than a year, after which its operation was stopped. The project was considered an economic failure (in fact, like Concorde), and it was officially closed for safety reasons. And since then, civil aviation has not developed in this direction. Actually,
There are two main problems that need to be solved for supersonic airliners to take root in civil aviation. These are noise level (safety) and economic feasibility.
When flying at supersonic speeds, shock waves are formed, which put pressure on the aerodynamic characteristics of the airliner. In other words, supersonic noise creates serious discomfort for passengers and even for people on the ground when the plane flies over populated areas. As a result, flights of civil aircraft over land at supersonic speed are prohibited under international ICAO rules. “If we could make sure that the noise level at supersonic is slightly higher than the noise level of traditional airliners, then this would be a big advantage for this kind of project,” says Aviaport editor-in-chief Oleg Panteleev. In the meantime, according to him, the only way to circumvent the ban today is to switch to supersonic speed only when flying over seas and oceans, where there are no such restrictions. For transatlantic flights, this option is quite relevant, but for flights from Europe to Asia and back, of course, not. That is why today in the world all the work that is being done towards creating a supersonic civil aircraft, are aimed primarily at reducing noise levels and reducing the number of shock waves. For example, last year Lockheed Martin announced plans to join forces with the nation's space agency NASA to create a low-noise supersonic aircraft that could someday carry passengers. It is known that NASA is working on an experimental supersonic engine that is capable of producing less sound and preventing sound waves from affecting the aircraft. The first tests are planned for 2020. On the other hand, it is necessary to solve the problem with efficiency. Flights to supersonic aircraft Tu-144 and Concorde turned out to be very expensive due to their enormous fuel consumption. There weren’t many people willing to pay three or four times more for flight speed. The low demand for such expensive services, coupled with restrictions on flight destinations (in fact, it only makes sense to fly to the USA), makes these aircraft also take a long time to pay for themselves for airlines. Apparently, Tupolev wants to solve the problem with efficiency by using liquefied hydrogen rather than traditional jet fuel as fuel. "Creation aircraft using liquefied hydrogen in the form of fuel has now already been worked out in technological terms, but not worked out in terms of certification requirements,” says Oleg Panteleev. But we are talking about subsonic aircraft, about the use of hydrogen fuel in turbojet engines. “As for a supersonic aircraft using hydrogen fuel, today there is not even a power plant for such fuel. Therefore, there are even more problems here. At the current level of development of science and technology, it is not yet possible to talk about a hypersonic aircraft powered by hydrogen fuel for transporting passengers as a reality,” says the expert. Creating the engine is the most difficult part of designing and building a new aircraft. And in general, the creation of such an aircraft may require investments that are many times greater than the development of a new subsonic airliner. The creation of MS-21, for example, cost 100 billion rubles. Is that Tupolev is talking about the idea of creating a small aircraft - for 25 passengers, and this may somewhat reduce the cost of the process of its creation. But in general, it will be necessary to create a number of components and structural elements virtually from scratch, so such a project will in any case cost a huge amount of money. But do Russian oligarchs need such aircraft and are they ready to invest tens, and maybe hundreds of billions in creating such a miracle? “The business jet market itself is vibrant and highly competitive. Those models that have a high cruising speed are in demand and are sold at a certain premium compared to competitors with a lower speed,” says Oleg Panteleev. However, there may not be anyone willing to get involved in this project. “International investors will not invest in projects of companies included in the UAC under the conditions of sanctions. There should be no illusions here. And it will be very difficult for Russian investors to pull off such a project. I think they now have completely different interests and priorities,” says Panteleev. However, the first vice-president of the Russian Union of Engineers, Ivan Andrievsky, is more optimistic: “The design bureau correctly spoke about its capabilities. And after such a statement, interests may arise, not only Russian, but also Chinese.” And although the announced project is more exclusive than mass, there are still prospects for its development. “40 years have passed since the Tu-144, during which time the demand for fast travel has grown and technology has stepped forward. Besides, the Americans are already stepping on our heels,” says Andrievsky. The American airline Spike Aerospace has been working for several years to create a supersonic business jet capable of carrying up to 22 passengers (at a speed of 1900 km/h). And just in September, the company announced that it would soon conduct flight tests of such an aircraft, the S-512 Quiet Supersonic Jet. However, this will be a test prototype drone for now. The second, larger test prototype will fly in mid-2018, and the S-512 aircraft itself is planned to be tested only in 2021. Most importantly, Spike Aerospace claims that the S-512 engine will generate noise levels on the ground of just 75 dBA. However, so far there are more rumors around this project than real successes. No one has seen the technical details yet.