Aerion Updates

[Grenville Fortescue]

This is the latest update I can find on the Aerion SBJ: http://aerioncorp.com/uploads/press/38.pdf

Reno, Nevada, February 14, 2013 –

Aerion Corporation, an aerodynamics technology company, today announced that the next round of high-speed test flightsin conjunction with NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center began on January 31, with approximately 10 flights to occur during a six-to-eight week period. These tests, using an Aerion phase two test article mounted under the centerline position of NASA’s F-15B research aircraft flown at speeds up to Mach 2.0, are intended to measure the real-world robustness of supersonic natural laminar flow, a vital element in the company’s design for the world’s first Supersonic Business Jet (SBJ).

http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getAsset.aspx?ItemID=20284

http://thumb.egloos.net/460x0/http://pds6.egloos.com/pds/200711/22/63/e0055563_4745782ba80c4.jpg

Aerion Corp has taken deposits for this aircraft but what is the consensus - is this project in fact likely to get off the ground and enter production?

Any reliable news welcome.

Aerion® Corporation | A faster future. (http://aerioncorp.com/)

[Yellow & Blue Baron]

I think General Dynamics and Boeing may be planning to take on Aerion, not sure though.

This article is from last year but it paints a good outline of the general situation -

Supersonic flight, a longtime dream for makers and owners of private planes, is inching closer to reality.

Nine years after the last trip of the Concorde jetliner, the quest for speed without window-rattling sonic booms is spurring research by billionaire Robert Bass, General Dynamics Corp. (GD)’s Gulfstream, Boeing Co. (BA), Lockheed Martin Corp., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and others.

The efforts signal that the time may finally be nearing for corporate aircraft flying faster than sound, about 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) per hour at sea level. Technological leaps since the Concorde’s development in the 1960s are converging with the willingness of globe-trotting chief executive officers to pay more for ever-bigger and longer-range jets.

“Most all of the manufacturers have done size, have done luxury and opulence,” said Andrew Hoy, a managing director at broker ExecuJet Aviation Group in Zurich. “Time is the biggest opportunity for them all and the only differentiator left.”

High operating costs and scant demand for the Concorde’s premium fares forced its retirement in 2003 after 27 years in service. The 100-seat jets streaked from New York to London at twice the speed of sound, slicing travel times in half to about three hours.

Planemakers took away a lesson in supersonic economics: It may be easier to find CEOs and wealthy individuals who crave faster corporate aircraft than to persuade airlines to invest in a Concorde successor.

‘More Sense’

“Given the amount of fuel you need to burn to achieve supersonic speeds, it’s going to be a more expensive proposition that only a sliver of the market is going to pay the price for,” said George Hamlin, president of Hamlin Transportation Consulting in Fairfax, Virginia. “When you’re talking about a supersonic business jet, that begins to make more sense.”

The largest corporate planes already cost almost as much as the smallest Boeing and Airbus SAS airliners, and can fly about 90 percent as fast as sound. Gulfstream’s G650 lists for $58.5 million. Bombardier Inc. (BBD/B)’s Global 7000 and 8000 jets retail for as much as $65 million. Warren Buffett’s NetJets unit ordered 20 last year.

The chief obstacle to supersonic flight is the same one that bedeviled the Concorde: the sonic boom. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration outlawed such flights by civilians over land in 1973 because of the noise, and other countries followed.

FAA Rules

Reversing that ban will be pivotal to any revival of supersonic travel, because the planes would lose their business case if they can’t fly at top speed, according to Savannah, Georgia-based Gulfstream.

“That requires a solution to the sonic boom problem, and that’s where our research efforts are focused,” Preston Henne, Gulfstream’s senior vice president of engineering and test, said during an aviation conference in Orlando, Florida, on Oct. 29. “We continue to make progress on that.”

NASA expects to start building a demonstrator plane in 2016 to show that disruptive booms can be minimized, and that jet may fly after 2020, according to Peter Coen, chief of supersonic research. In an industry in which Boeing’s Dreamliner took more than a decade to go from the Sonic Cruiser concept to first delivery, that’s not a long-range timeline.

“This is a high-value niche market; the winner here will be the first to market,” said Brian Foley, an aviation consultant based in Sparta, New Jersey. “That’s why there’s interest and that’s why there’s motivation for these people to keep on trying.”

Risks Ahead

Success for a new generation of planes is hardly assured, said Foley, who spent 20 years as marketing director at Dassault Aviation SA (AM)’s Falcon business-jet unit.

No follow-on aircraft has emerged since Air France and British Airways parked their Concordes, which were grounded for more than a year after the 2000 crash in Paris that killed 113 people when one of the Air France jets struck runway debris.

The planes slurped twice as much fuel as a Boeing 747 jumbo jet with only about a quarter of the passengers, and round-trip tickets in 2003 fetched as much as $13,500, then the sticker price on a Dodge Neon compact.

While new designs and engines may tame the roar billowing from a supersonic jet in flight, engineers still must muffle the so-called focused boom, the sharp crack that occurs as a plane first goes past the sound barrier. Emissions and maintenance on high-performance engines also remain challenges.

Billionaire Joins the Quest for a Boomless Supersonic Jet - Businessweek (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-27/billionaire-joins-quest-for-boomless-supersonic-jets)

[Booglebox]

my $0.02: there is a market for this, but it's not very big. :8
The high price tag, high operating costs (JT-8s!) and potentially poor rwy performance are barriers, but I think the deal-breaker is not being able to go supersonic over (populated) land. Especially for places like the middle-east, this is a problem (http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=&R=7500km%40omdb&MS=wls&MP=ortho&MX=540x540&PM=*) IMHO.
It will be better for trans-ocean missions though.
I think they will sell a few, to the wang-waving ramp-presence shiny-toy crowd primarily.
There aren't that many people who really are prepared to pay masses to get places quickly - and those people tend to be happy with M0.87 in a GLEX (or M0.92 in a G650!) when they can have plenty of space to stretch out, a big bedroom, as much catering as they want, and in any case they have internet so they can get their work done. Am I right? :cool:

[PURPLE PITOT]

Agreed BB. If they ever get the supersonic overflight issue sorted, then there may be much more demand. Just the willy wavers till then.

[Grenville Fortescue]

Last press release (http://aerioncorp.com/uploads/press/39.pdf) in May where they talked about high speed test flights.

Does anyone know if Aerion are planning to go through with this project?

[HyFlyer]

Apparently if they generate enough hot air, it'll propel them past the sound barrier.....

..as far as I can determine that's the strategy they're actually working on.....

[tupungato]

Flexjet Orders 20 Aerion Supersonic Bizjets


Flexjet Orders 20 Aerion Supersonic Bizjets | Flying Magazine (http://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/jets/flexjet-orders-20-aerion-supersonic-bizjets)

[Above The Clouds]

Booglebox
but I think the deal-breaker is not being able to go supersonic over (populated) land. Especially for places like the middle-east

The initial design phase; one of the concepts is to reduce the sonic boom shockwave to allow supersonic flight over land giving a boomless cruise speed of Mach 1.2 and an MMO of 1.5


NASA expects to start building a demonstrator plane in 2016 to show that disruptive booms can be minimized, and that jet may fly after 2020, according to Peter Coen, chief of supersonic research.

[Booglebox]

Cool.
What about designated routes over unpopulated areas e.g. desert?