NASA is claiming a breakthrough in the design of supersonic aircraft, with wind-tunnel tests proving it is possible to design configurations that combine low sonic boom with low cruise drag, characteristics once thought to be mutually exclusive.
The tests involved scale models of small supersonic airliners designed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin and aimed at entry into service about 2025. Although the measured shock wave signatures are at the high end of what would be publicly acceptable, they proved the design tools could produce a supersonic business jet capable of unrestricted overland flight, says Peter Coen, NASA’s Supersonic Fixed-Wing project manager.
