The return of passenger supersonic flight may have just picked up speed. Early in February, Boeing announced it would partner with Aerion Supersonic, a Nevada company founded by the legendary aircraft designer Richard Tracy that has spent the last two decades developing a supersonic business jet called the AS2. Boeing said in a news release it would “provide engineering, manufacturing and flight test resources, as well as strategic vertical content, to bring Aerion’s AS2 supersonic business jet to market.”
The AS2, which is scheduled to fly for the first time in 2023, will carry as many as 12 passengers as fast as 1,000 miles per hour, or Mach 1.4. That’s 40 percent faster than the speed of sound and 70 percent faster than most of today’s business jets. The plane could cut a transatlantic flight by three hours, and a journey across the Pacific Ocean by five hours.
The AS2 will rely on new supersonic engines that are being developed by GE Aviation. The engines, called Affinity, will be able to operate as high as 60,000 feet and will also meet stringent noise requirements. Brad Mottier, vice president and general manager for GE Aviation’s Business and General Aviation and Integrated Services, the unit that’s building Affinity, told GE Reports that in the last 50 years, business aircraft speeds have increased by less than 10 percent. “Instead of going faster, cabins have increased in size and become more comfortable — and range has become longer,” he said, adding that speed is the obvious next step. GE is also helping NASA develop another new supersonic jet, the X-59.
Top: The AS2, which is scheduled to fly for the first time in 2023, will carry as many as 12 passengers as fast as 1,000 miles per hour, or Mach 1.4. That’s 40 percent faster than the speed of sound and 70 percent faster than most of today’s business jets. Image credit: Aerion Supersonic. Above: GE’s Affinity is the first civil supersonic engine in 55 years. Image credit: GE Aviation.
The last supersonic passenger jet was the iconic Concorde, which shuttled travelers primarily between Europe and the Americas. But it was grounded in 2003, mainly for economic reasons.
GE’s Affinity, introduced in October, is the first civil supersonic engine in 55 years — and the first since the Olympus engine on the Concorde. The Olympus was designed in 1946 and adapted for use on the Concorde from a military bomber, the Avro Vulcan, which flew for the first time in 1952. GE’s Affinity features 21st-century technology coupled with a proven engine core that has billions of hours of commercial and military flight time. “Our mission was to design an efficient, environmentally compliant engine that could provide exceptional and balanced performance across supersonic and subsonic flights,” Mottier said. “We believe we have done that.”
The AS2’s design could allow it to fly up to Mach 1.3 without a sonic boom reaching the ground over land, where permitted by regulation, a feat the Concorde struggled to achieve. A sonic boom is the loud sound caused by air shockwaves released when an aircraft breaks the speed of sound. “The Concorde was successful from a technical standpoint, but in terms of economics, it was too expensive to operate, its range was limited, it was noisy and its fuel consumption was high,” Jeff Miller, Aerion’s vice president of marketing, told GE Reports.
Everyone trying to revitalize supersonic air travel today comes at it with a common goal: to produce supersonic aircraft capable of flying within existing regulations that also have a life span and maintenance program resembling those in today’s commercial and private aviation sectors.
Said Miller: “We’ve been focusing on improving efficiency so we can lower the cost of operations and extend the range of the plane so it’s not limited to just barely getting across the Atlantic. Now you’ve got an airplane that will really take you places.”
The AS2 could cut a transatlantic flight by three hours, and a journey across the Pacific Ocean by five hours. The first flight is scheduled for 2023. Image credit: Aerion Supersonic.