ANDREW DOYLE / TOKYO
Airline pressure has led to company looking at supersonic versions of aircraft
Boeing engineers and aerodynamicists visited Japan's National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) near Tokyo late last month to determine whether the institute's research work on a second generation supersonic transport (SST) could have an application in the US company's Sonic Cruiser project.
John Roundhill, Boeing vice-president marketing Sonic Cruiser programme, has meanwhile briefed Japan's major aerospace manufacturers on progress in defining the proposed transonic airliner family.
The talks come as it has emerged that Boeing is undertaking its own SST studies, with the focus currently on a Mach 1.6-1.8 capable aircraft. According to Boeing, several of the 12 airlines on the Sonic Cruiser advisory committee have expressed interest in a faster aircraft.
NAL is developing new computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to optimise the design of its SST and plans to fly a rocket-boosted, unpowered 1/10th scale model of the aircraft at the Woomera test range in Australia by June. Boeing is considering a similar approach for the next phase of high-speed testing of the Sonic Cruiser design but is yet to make a final decision.
"We are talking to NAL about some areas of expertise where we can work together, such as the nose shape," says Roundhill. "One of the things we are going to be interested in is the Japanese test flight next year," he adds.
Boeing has completed initial low- and high-speed windtunnel tests of the Sonic Cruiser configuration, and expects to decide on the next phase of high-speed tests by the end of next year, by which time NAL should have completed four test flights at Woomera.
NAL next-generation SST project centre director Kimio Sakata says the design technology needed for the Sonic Cruiser is "very similar to the SST" and that Boeing is "very interested in our technology".
NAL gets government funding to carry out research work on behalf of industry, and its 10-year, $280 million SST research project is due for completion at the end of 2006.
Roundhill says Boeing is talking to the Japanese companies about co-operating in areas such as composite materials development, systems and aerodynamics research. Japanese industry already has industrial stake on Boeing projects, but has so far rejected overtures to join Airbus's A380.
Source: Flight International
