For a description of some of the design factors for the sonic cruiser, go to this week's edition of "Aviation Week".
http://www.aviationnow.com/content/p...2/avi_news.htm
Several previous posts described the sonic cruiser as being built around the 757 tube. All the press stories I've read indicate that it will be a double aisle aircraft. Hard to believe anyone would develop a single aisle plane with a 9000 nautical mile range in this day of DVT worries.
If a second-generation SST is still decades away, then an all first-class 100 seat configuration might serve Concorde-type clientele on selected routes when Concordes reach the end of their operational lives.
Putting aside whether Boeing is trying to splash some water on the A-380 parade, a successfully designed and cost-competitive sonic cruiser would seem to be a stake into the heart of the long-term A-340 market.
Finally, several excerpts from the March 31 Seattle Post Intelligencer:
"Boeing's engineers on the new Sonic Cruiser aren't ready to tell secrets just yet.
But aviation experts say that if the company is right in its claim to be able to produce an efficient jetliner that can cruise just under the speed of sound, they have conquered a problem that has baffled airplane designers since the dawn of the jet age.
"There has to be something very clever here and they are just not releasing it yet," said John Hansman, head of the aeronautics and
astronautics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Those guys are smart and they understand this issue very well," he added. "They would not move forward with this plane unless they are confident they have some means to make it competitive."
...Airbus was quick to say that it studied the concept of a plane that could fly at near sonic speeds and determined it would burn 40
percent more fuel at cruising speed.
But Mike Bair, vice president for business strategy and development for Boeing's commercial airplanes, said the Sonic Cruiser will pay only a "small" fuel penalty. Even that, he said, will be offset by the jet's higher cruise speed.
"Everything we have looked at says this plane will be cost competitive with today's airplanes," he said.
There is no magical technology on the Sonic Cruiser that allows it do what other jets have not -- fly efficiently at transonic speeds.
"The design itself is what is revolutionary," Bair said.
Boeing said yesterday its top engineers on the Sonic Cruiser are not available for interviews.
Until they are willing to talk in detail, aviation experts can only speculate about the new design.
Hansman said Boeing's engineers are probably using a technique called advanced computational fluid dynamics modeling to develop a design that minimizes drag at high Mach numbers.
Such fluid dynamics modeling allows the design to be studied on computer models.
Another challenge Boeing faces, he said, is how to make the jet stable at the higher speeds.
As a jet approaches the speed of sound, he said, the center of pressure moves around, which makes the plane less stable. Aircraft
stability was the main challenge when the sound barrier was finally broken in 1947, he said.
In announcing the Sonic Cruiser development program, Alan Mulally, chief executive of Boeing's commercial airplanes, said the jet would be even more stable than current commercial planes. That stability, he said, comes from the small wing-like canards near the plane's nose.
The canards essentially perform the same function as the horizontal stabilizer at the rear of today's jets. The stabilizer can be moved in flight to trim the plane. The canards on the Sonic Cruiser also move.
Boeing will be working with about a dozen airlines from the United States, Europe and Asia as the development program goes forward.
That's what Boeing also did with the 777 program.
So far, the response from airlines to the Sonic Cruiser announcement has been enthusiastic -- assuming Boeing can do
what it claims.
Typical of the comments was one from Air Canada Chief Executive Robert Milton, who was quoted by Dow Jones News Service as saying, "It's a tactically brilliant move, if the jet is cost-effective and the price is right."
...The Boeing Co. says it wants Japan's three biggest aircraft makers to help develop its new high-speed commercial plane, replacing an
earlier plan to involve them in the wing production for a larger version of the 747 jet."