Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- The Boeing 767 Cross Section, Part 1 November 24, 2022
- Movie Review: Devotion November 21, 2022
- China will accelerate development of its commercial aerospace sector November 21, 2022
- Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 46. eVTOL comparison with helicopter November 18, 2022
- The economics of a 787-9 and A330-900 at eight or nine abreast November 16, 2022
Bjorn’s Corner: Supersonic transport revival, Part 8
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 28, 2018, ©. Leeham News: In the last Corner we started looking at the biggest challenge for an SST, the powerplant. We first discussed the most fundamental problem of the engine, the level of Ram drag for an SST engine.
Now we continue with the challenges of the Nacelle. This week we talk intakes.
Figure 1. The Concorde nacelle with its Multi-Shock inlet. Source: Google images.
Bjorn’s Corner: Supersonic transport revival, Part 7
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 21, 2018, ©. Leeham News: In the last Corner we looked at the heating of the aircraft when cruising at high Mach.
Now we will address the biggest problem for supersonic airliners, the engines and nacelles.
Figure 1. The Concorde engine and nacelle. Source: Google images.
Bjorn’s Corner: Supersonic transport revival, Part 5
By Bjorn Fehrm
September 7, 2018, ©. Leeham News: In the last Corner we looked at the drag hump which is created by several supersonic effects when an SST (SuperSonic Transport) passes Mach 1.
Now we will look at other aerodynamic problems facing an SST.
Figure 1. The Aerion AS2 SST with its main systems. Source: Aerion Supersonic.
Bjorn’s Corner: Supersonic transport revival, Part 4
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 31, 2018, ©. Leeham News: In the last Corner we discussed supersonic lift wave drag and how suddenly the length aspect ratio is more important than wingspan aspect ratio.
Now we talk about the problem of going from subsonic to supersonic flight.
Figure 1. The Supersonic drag hump. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: Supersonic transport revival, Part 3
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 24, 2018, ©. Leeham News: In the last Corner we discussed how supersonic wave drag can be higher than any other drag for a blunt fuselage trying to fly at supersonic speeds. If we try to fly supersonically with a Dreamliner fuselage, the volume wave drag is four times as large as the whole Dreamliner drag when flying at its normal cruise speed.
Besides wave drag based on bodies volumes we also have wave drag when we angle lift surfaces like wings against air to create lift.
Figure 1. The last Supersonic transport, the Concorde. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: Supersonic transport revival, Part 2
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 17, 2018, ©. Leeham News: In the last Corner we outlined several challenges facing a supersonic airliner or business jet.
We will now go through these challenges one by one. We start with the aerodynamic challenge.
Figure 1. The last Supersonic transport, the Concorde. Source: Wikipedia.
Bjorn’s Corner: Supersonic transport revival
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 10, 2018, ©. Leeham News: The interest in civil supersonic flight has been revived in the last years. Aerion Supersonic is well advanced with its AS2 supersonic business jet and there are several projects looking at restarting supersonic airliner service, 15 years after the Concorde stopped flying.
We will examine the unique challenges facing these projects in a series of Corners.
Figure 1. The latest rendering of the Aerion AS2 supersonic business jet. Source: Aerion Supersonic.
Bjorn’s Corner: Largest navigation change since radar, Part 8
August 03, 2018, ©. Leeham News: In seven articles we have discussed the largest change in how air navigation is done since the Second World War when Radar was invented.
It’s time to summarize the changes and what it will mean for how we fly in the future.
Figure 1. Airbus Vahana Air Taxi concept. Source: Airbus.
Bjorn’s Corner: Largest navigation change since radar, Part 7
By Bjorn Fehrm
July 27, 2018, ©. Leeham News: Last week we discussed new air navigation procedures which can benefit from the universal adoption of ADS-B.
Now we shall discuss some other needed developments for air navigation. The complement, and long-term replacement, of radio traffic with text messages.
Figure 1. CPDLC display in an Airbus A330. Source: Google images.
Bjorn’s Corner: Largest navigation change since radar, Part 6
July 20, 2018, ©. Leeham News: Last week we discussed how a TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) works and how ADS-B will improve the system.
Now we discuss other areas of aircraft navigation and separation which are enabled when all players have ADS-B and transmit their 3D position and where they are going.
Figure 1. Air traffic is getting denser and denser. Source: flightradar24.