Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin hope to receive US Government funding for a quiet supersonic aircraft technology (QSAT) demonstration as a precursor to the development of a supersonic business jet (SBJ).
The companies are waiting to hear whether Congress has allocated up to $20 million from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) fiscal year 2000 budget to begin the five-year QSAT programme.
Gulfstream president Bill Boisture says the intention is to demonstrate the low sonic boom and emissions that are key to development of an SBJ. Flight test options range from a full-scale manned demonstrator to a subscale remotely piloted vehicle, depending on the funding, he says.
The business jet manufacturer teamed with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works last year to study the feasibility of an SBJ. "We are encouraged by the early results," says Boisture, citing boom suppression technology developed by Skunk Works. "The aircraft must by able to operate randomly over land at supersonic speed to be useful," he says.
The companies had approached NASA to fund an X-plane demonstrator under its now-cancelled High Speed Research programme. It looks more likely that funding support could come from DARPA, which is interested in military applications of quiet supersonic aircraft technology.
The QSAT programme would demonstrate technologies applicable to an SBJ and military aircraft such as reconnaissance and quick missile delivery platforms, says Pres Henne, Gulfstream's vice-president product development.
Several potential aircraft configurations have been conceived, says Henne, and a demonstrator design could be selected within two years for flight testing within five.
Boisture says it would take at least another five years to bring an SBJ to market. The company is looking at a Mach 1.6-M2 aircraft with a range and cabin size similar to its Gulfstream IV.
Henne says three independent surveys have shown there is a market for a Gulfstream-sized SBJ. At last week's National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) convention in Atlanta, Georgia, billionaire investor Warren Buffet - owner of the NetJets fractional ownership programme - restated his strong interest in an SBJ.
Source: Flight International
