Can It Be Done? Consortium Of Manufacturers Bets It Can
NASA and several industry teams are
studying how to design and build an aircraft that could demonstrate
technology to lessen the noise and window-rattling effects of
supersonic flight.
Preparations for NASA's planned Sonic Boom Mitigation Project
include a study of concept feasibility and design requirements for
a prototype technology demonstration airplane that could reduce the
startling "sonic boom" when an aircraft exceeds the speed of
sound.
"NASA plans to develop a request for proposals to design and
build a low sonic boom demonstrator using the information provided
by the teams," said Bob Meyer, Sonic Boom Mitigation Demonstration
Project manager at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards
Air Force Base, CA.
NASA awarded a grant to American Technology Alliances (AmTech)
to fund these studies being conducted by four industry teams. The
teams include solo endeavors by Boeing Phantom Works, of Long
Beach, CA. and Raytheon Aircraft in Wichita, KS. Northrop Grumman,
El Segundo, CA, is working with Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, GA;
and Lockheed Martin, Palmdale, CA, has teamed with Cessna Aircraft
Company, Wichita, KS.
The same grant is also funding Allison Advanced Development
Company, Indianapolis; GE Transportation, Cincinnati; and Pratt and
Whitney, Hartford, CT, to support the teams with engine-related
data.
Each team has been awarded approximately one million dollars for
a five-month study. NASA will use the results to define technology
and design requirements for a low sonic boom demonstration
aircraft. The questions the research will answer include whether
it's feasible to modify an existing aircraft to be the quiet boom
demonstrator, or whether a whole new aircraft design will have to
be created.
"The concept exploration studies are crucial," said Peter Coen,
of the Langley Research Center at Hampton, VA, and a member of the
Sonic Boom Mitigation Project planning team. "Those studies will
determine whether a low sonic boom demonstrator aircraft can be
built at an affordable cost in a reasonable amount of time."
The Sonic Boom Mitigation Project could begin work on the
research aircraft as early as this fall.
"It is one element of a transformed Vehicle Systems Program in
which breakthrough technologies are carried forward to flight,"
said Rich Wlezien, manager of the Vehicle Systems Program in NASA's
Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate programs.