Piotr Butowski/WARSAW
Russia's Myasishchev design bureau has designed a passenger/cargo aircraft based on the high altitude M-60 which it designed in the 1980s. The design features long unswept wings, a wide "lifting body" fuselage, and two high bypass ratio turbofans installed side by side above the rear part of the fuselage.
The M-60 was originally optimised for battlefield surveillance and airborne early warning and control, and was designed to cruise for 8h at an altitude of 65,500ft (20,000m) and a speed of Mach 0.7, although no examples were completed. Myasishchev is now talking about a high altitude transport aircraft based on the M-60 configuration, dubbed the GP-60 (gruzo- passazhirsky - cargo-passenger).
Powered by two Perm PS-90A turbofans adapted for high altitude operation, the GP-60 is offered in various sizes, with capacity for up to 500 passengers and a range of 5,000-15,000km (2,700-8,100nm), depending on payload. A diagram showed a model, the GP-60D Katun, weighing 62.5t and able to carry a payload of 20t over 5,000km.
The aircraft's design incorporates a wide "lifting body" fuselage, which acts as a low aspect ratio wing, coupled with an unswept high aspect ratio supercritical wing and tailplanes with leading-edge extensions/vortex generators. Windtunnel models have demonstrated a lift to drag ratio of 25:27 at cruise altitudes of 43,000-49,000ft - compared with 17:18 for current airliners - and the ability to maintain controlled flight at angles of attack in excess of 20°.
Source: Flight International