Message posted by Sundog on October 19, 2004 at 15:35:24 PST:
This week's Aviation Week had some info on the development of supersonic bizjets. I just paraphrase some of the info in the following tidbit, but I find it interesting that one group talks about the low boom signature technology the Skunk Works already "has." I know this site has reported on L-M QSP technology. Perhaps once this new design becomes available, we'll get to see the aircraft L-M used to develop the technology. One group, Aerion Corporation, is working on a jet that uses Natural Laminar Flow Technology (I believe the F-16XL was used to verify this technology) and can fly up to M1.1 without producing any substantial boom and would most likely fly overland at that speed. Flying over water, it would have a top speed of M1.6 and it would be certified to 51,000ft. It's approach speed would be around 125kts and would have a balanced field length of 6,000ft. The other design, from Supersonic Aerospace International is headed by J. Michael Paulson, the son of Allen Paulson who tried to get the SSBJ from Sukhoi off the ground. They call their aircraft the QSST, for Quiet Small Supersonic Transport. It would cruise between M1.6-1.8 and is being developed by the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. He said their technology is so good, it offers a sonic boom signature 1/100th that of the Concorde's signature. Both aircraft would have a range of around 4,000nm.
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