The Issue of Supersonic Flight - Research Paper Example

Introduction Supersonic transport is a unique type of aircraft that is designed to travel at a speed that is way beyond the speed of sound; so far only two supersonic transport aircrafts namely the Concorde and Tupolev Tu-144 (Tupolov, 2014). Numerous on-going design studies have increasingly focused on the supersonic airliners, specifically aiming to achieve reduced noise generation particularly when the plane is taking off and during flight as a result of sonic booms. Other design challenges that have rocked the plane over the years include the high costs of developing the plane, high cost of construction materials, enormous weight, as well as the high cost per seat compared to subsonic airliners. This paper will trace the history of the development of SST with the aim of highlighting the main reasons why the supersonic flight has failed to attain mass commercial success since the project was commenced several decades ago. Conceptualization of SST Engineers toyed with the idea of SST throughout the 1950’s thereby ascertaining that the plane design could be achieved from a technical standpoint; nonetheless, it could not be ascertained with certainty whether the aircraft would be economically viable. The aircraft was seen as having the potential of increasing sortie rates greatly, particularly on long and medium-range flights that would sustain the aircraft in cruise for a longer duration; given that the SST travels at a speed that is at least three times as fast as the prevailing subsonic transports, it was projected that the SST would actually replace nearly three planes in service thereby lowering costs not only in terms of human capital, but also in terms of maintenance. The development of the SST passenger airplanes was first proposed in the USA and in the UK when several hypothetical suggestions were put forward as being possible from a technical standpoint even though they were still very far away from practicality. Initial development The initial success in the design of the first SST combat airplanes in the 50’s inspired further research into the possibility of establishing supersonic passenger airlines; the pioneering work into the design of the SST started in the initial years of the post-war period (Tupolov, 2014). Both the US and the UK advanced their first prototypes of the SST in the late 50’s, which led to the manufacture of the first SST heavy planes for military purposes; on the strength of this early success, major aircraft companies started pursuing SST projects following numerous aerodynamic schematics as well as arrangements. Developing effective and competitive SST by improving the military prototype was an extremely difficult endeavor compared to the process of building from the subsonic heavy combat aircraft. This is attributable to the fact that to achieve high efficiency by operating the plane at increased supersonic modes of flight and the nature of the purpose of transporting passengers called for increasing safety levels in operating the aircraft significantly. Additionally, since the first SST combat aircraft was specifically designed for short supersonic flight, the model SST passenger aircraft had to be designed to achieve a higher cruise flight to achieve efficiency of mass commercial operation. Eventually, after comprehensively reviewing all the possible approaches of achieving the necessary modifications of the SST combat in the design of the SST passenger aircraft, aircraft specialists and engineers both in the west and in USSR arrived came to a consensus that an SST to achieve economic efficiency, the model SST had to be redesigned radically as a new aircraft. Tupolev DB commenced work on their SST design in the early 60s basing on the technical design of first range bombers and later begun working on the TU-144, which was powered by NK-144 engines. Real work on the English-French SST Concorde was also started in the early 60s aiming to achieve cruising supersonic flight speed exceeding m=2 and flight range of nearly 6500 km and a carrying capacity of 120-140 passengers. Basing on the projected future of SST markets, leading aircraft manufacturing companies in the USA begun work on the development of an SST that would be even greater than Concorde; the U.S. SST would have an increased carrying capacity of nearly 250-300 passengers and would cruise at a speed of up to M=3 with a flight range of 700-800 km. Public opposition The Concorde aircraft was mainly opposed by the public partly due to its humongous sonic boom since when an object travels faster than the speed of sound it creates shockwaves that leave behind a massive disruptive noise that sounds more like a loud thunderclap over one’s head. Moreover, the Concorde aircraft’s sonic boom caused massive havoc on infrastructure under its flight path including rattling windows and loosening roof tiles and since the negative effects of the aircraft were so disturbing to the public, most countries opted to either completely ban supersonic flights or to restrict them on land. The SST has been grounded since the catastrophic effects of the aircraft have to be addressed before SST flights can be made viable, at least for mass commercial operations. Cost effectiveness Even though the SST was a novel idea due to its massive power and futuristic appeal, operating the SST airliners was associated with huge cost implications, particularly due to their untenable Mach 2 noise levels and fuel inefficiencies (Dorminey, 2012). Consequently, the SST was very costly and only affordable for the prosperous individuals who sought to optimize efficiency of their travels to save on time while avoiding costs associated with long hours of travel to their preferred destinations. Whereas the west had such type of customers to whom Concorde flights were a significant save of time and money, there were no such people in the USSR to whom saving time equaled to saving money, which implied that the TU-144 flights were not commercially viability since there was no demand for their flights. In comparison, the Concorde program, which had achieved a total flying time of nearly 325 000 flight hours by 1989, was more commercially viable and prestigious than the TU-144 program ("Did Concorde make a profit for British Airways?" n.d). In 2003, both the British Airways and Air France announced concurrently that they were grounding their supersonic airliners for good since passenger numbers of the plane have remained low ever since that fateful crash in 2000, which have resulted to great losses on the side of the airliners since they no longer make profit to sustain the aircraft’s ever-rising maintenance costs (BBC News, 2003). The British Airline was very categorical that the ambitious investment in the SST was no longer justifiable from an economic viability standpoint, given that the global downturn in demands for all sorts of premium flights in the airline industry had caused a massive decline in revenues. Concorde The British and French governments agreed to develop and establish a supersonic airliner in 1962, which led to the beginning of exhaustive research and development schemes into the design of the SST before it could be certified for passenger operation (Concordesst, n.d). The Concorde engineers embarked on the project venturing into areas that had never been explored before by any commercial aircraft designer oblivion of the direction their work and the major technical challenges that would be encountered along the way. The initial research programs concentrated on aerodynamics, materials and structures as well as the formulization of a model aircraft design that was sufficiently detailed to enable marketing discussions and possibility of customers. The Concorde supersonic aircraft design presented numerous challenges for aerodynamicists among them the aerodynamic aspects of power plant installation since it was difficult to achieve propulsive efficiency (which is crucial for success of the supersonic aircraft) since the engine of the aircraft demands varying airflow in different phases of the flight. The other challenge of the total airframe configuration was led to the adoption of a long streamlined fuselage and slender delta wing as the model Concorde configuration; however, the weight and complex design of the swing-wing hinge rendered it inefficient for commercial operation at the moment. Later on, various modifications of the prototype design achieved most of the initial technical objectives set on by the aircraft’s manufacturers thereby not only delivering a unique and fast customer flight experience, but also nearly a quarter-century profitable operations (Hooks, Parrish, Miles, & Moreau, 2009). Nonetheless, the Concorde was not able to achieve the breakthrough innovation that would revolutionize air transport firstly due to its massive sonic boom that limited its international travels, the conflict of interests between manufacturers of the aircrafts and airliners. Similarly, the Concorde aircraft was unable to achieve its primary goal of mass commercial transportation due to the radicle shifts in the personal travel market; for instance, value and price rather than performance became the new determinants of customer choice in the personal travel market thereby undermining market share for the Concorde significantly. Tupelov and its failures Unlike the Concorde, the TU-144 aircraft was designed to fly mainly over land and this meant high flight altitudes, increased parameters as well as high power plant thrust demand. The initial design of the TU-144 had many flaws since the engineers working on the aircraft were less experienced and it was only at their last modification of the aircraft that its engines were taken nearer to the Olympus standard (Tupolov, 2014). For instance, the TU-144D model aircraft that was produced in the 70s crashed near Yegorievsk during its first flight test under the piloting of Popov and co-pilot Yelyan due to a breakage of the fuel line in the engine compartment. The flight crew executed a forced landing using the retracted landing gear and this resulted to the death of two test engineers while Yelyan was severely wounded; eventually, the horror of the crash led to the complete termination of these flights and despite further advancements, the aircraft was never operated. The negative initial data were resolved in subsequent designs and in the course of development of the project through high aerodynamic efficiencies on the TU-144; this meant achieved through sophistication of the aircraft design and lowering its maintainability significantly. Concorde crash In 2000, Air France flight came down in Gonesse France moments after taking off in Paris Charles de Gaulle heading to J.F. Kennedy International Airport in New York city; this fatal crash claimed the lives of 100 passengers and nine crew members that were on board during the flight, as well as four other people that had been on the ground. This was the only fatal accident involving the Concorde flight and the official investigations revealed that the crash had been caused by a metallic strip, which fell off from a Continental Airlines DC-10 that had begun its flight moments earlier. It was hypothesized that the fragment perforated a tyre on the left main wheel of the Concorde, which exploded in the course of take-off; a piece of rubber from the exploded tyre hit the fuel tank causing a fuel leak that led to a fire and in reaction to a fire warning, the flight crew was forced to shut down the second engine. Consequently, since one engine could not supply sufficient power to sustain take-off, the plane could not gain altitude forcing it to enter a rapid pitch-up and a subsequent violent descent; the aircraft rolled left and crashed tail-low into a hotel. This fatal crash was the first one of its kind and magnitude in the history of Concorde flight operations since the program had maintained an impressive record as the safest operational passenger airliner all over the world (“Accident on 25 July 2000 at La Patte d’Oie in Gonesse” 2002). After this crash, numerous safety improvements were made on the Concorde by including more secure electrical controls, adding Kevlar lining on the fuel tanks as well as developing burst resistant tyres (BBC News, 2001); the aircraft performed its first flight after the crash in July 2001, departing from London Heathrow, to remobilize the London-New York route. The flight that was televised live while being watched by crowds at take-off and landing locations was declared a success and the very first flight with passengers following the crash resumed later in November 2001 (Fox news, 2001). The future Whereas the Concorde program is now a revel of the past, numerous companies are presently working on developing the first supersonic business jet; for instance, Aerion Corporation is developing a jet that would achieve Mach 1.6 that would most likely be ready in 2020 while Spike Aerospace have launched their plans of establishing a business jet that would achieve a speed of Mach 1.8 by 2018 (Carrington, 2014). Nonetheless, the future of the SST remains bleak, at least in the meantime, until aircraft manufacturers can achieve the significant reductions in the aircraft’s sonic boom while enhancing fuel and maintaining efficiencies for mass commercial flight effectiveness. Conclusion Ultimately, the supersonic flights have failed to attain mass commercial success because their continued operations were plagued by high fuel inefficiencies, high maintenance costs, as well as super-sonic booms, which lead to intolerable devastating effects for the public; until aircraft manufacturers can effectively address these design inefficiencies in the second generation SST, the future of SST remains unattainable. Bibliography “Accident on 25 July 2000 at La Patte d’Oie in Gonesse (95) to the Concorde registered F-BTSC operated by Air France". French Bureau Enquêtes-Accidents (BEA), January 2002. pp. 145–147. BBC News. (2001). Concorde's safety modifications. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1442061.stm BBC News. (2003). Concorde grounded for good. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2934257.stm Carrington, D. (2014). This plane has no windows! But it is really fast. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/04/travel/this-plane-has-no-windows/ Concordesst. (n.d). "Did Concorde make a profit for British Airways?". Concorde SST.com. Retrieved from: http://www.concordesst.com/retire/faq_r.html Concordesst. (n.d). Concorde history: Early development. Retrieved from http://www.concordesst.com/history/eh2.html Dorminey, B. (2012). Is There An SST In Your Future? NASA and Aerion To Continue Testing Supersonic (SST) Business Jet Technology. Forbes. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2012/05/30/is-there-an-sst-in-your-future-nasa-and-aerion-to-continue-testing-supersonic-sst-business-jet-technology/ Fox news. (2001). Concorde Completes Successful Test Flight. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/2001/07/17/concorde-completes-successful-test-flight/ Hooks, M., Parrish, I., Miles, E., & Moreau, M. (2009). The Concorde Failure to Create a Breakthrough Innovation in the Aircraft Industry. Print. Retrieved from: http://faculty.tuck.dartmouth.edu/images/uploads/faculty/ron-adner/The_Concorde.pdf Tupolov. (2014). “144” (TU-144): First in the world supersonic passenger production aircraft. Retrieved from: http://www.tupolev.ru/en/aircrafts/tu-144 Read More