Supersonic Aerospace International (SAI) president J. Michael Paulson is "confident that we'll have a large aircraft manufacturer" on the team developing the Quiet Small Supersonic Transport (QSST) by next year's NBAA Convention. Around that time, too, SAI expects to sign an agreement with Rolls-Royce, General Electric or Pratt & Whitney to develop the QSST's engine.
Paulson unveiled the QSST design here on Tuesday and said that the $2.5 billion to $3 billion project could lead to a first flight in 2010-11 and service entry in 2012. He disclosed that Lockheed Martin has carried out extensive wind tunnel testing under contract to SAI, and that the Skunk Works will continue to act as design authority for the airplane under a current memorandum of agreement between the two companies.
Tests have shown that the airplane's sonic boom will be virtually imperceptible, team members say, and there should be no need for an X-plane to demonstrate the technology.
In January, SAI will launch Phase 2 of the QSST project, Paulson says. The 18-to-24 month, $50 million effort—described as "risk mitigation"—will include discussions with regulators, the expansion of the SAI management organization, further refinement of the design and the assembly of a global consortium to build the QSST. Work so far has been funded by a trust established by Paulson's father, Gulfstream founder Allen Paulson, before his death in 2000.
Paulson is looking for partners in Europe and Asia, both to spread the risk of the project and to ease the task of changing national and international rules to permit overland supersonic flight. He says that SAI has had "very high level" discussions with potential partners, but that they are covered by confidentiality agreements.
Phase 1 of the project has been completed successfully. Paulson confirms that it started in May 2001, when SAI signed a $20 million contract with Lockheed Martin to carry out preliminary design of the QSST. "There's been a tremendous amount of work done," says Lockheed Martin program manager Tom Hartmann, "including significant wind tunnel work, structural analysis and CFD [computational fluid dynamics]. In our opinion, it's feasible."
Supersonic wind tunnel tests of five-foot-long models have shown consistent boom strengths of under 0.3 pounds per square foot. The sonic boom does peak on acceleration and deceleration, but the problem is manageable, Hartmann says. The airplane will incorporate software and displays that will allow the crew to manage its boom signature.
In Phase 3 and 4 of the program, to start in 2006-07, SAI plans to go directly into development and production. Phase 3 is design and Phase 4 is manufacture, and the plan is to build three flight-test aircraft on production tooling. The team is still looking at the possibility of building a 60-70 percent scale prototype under Phase 2, and has talked to Scaled Composites (among other companies) about building an X-vehicle, but Hartmann does not consider it a technical necessity and it would add time and cost to the project.
The 153,000-pound QSST is designed for a nonstop range of over 4,000 nmi at Mach 1.6-1.8. It strongly resembles the design featured in Lockheed Martin patents (and seen in yesterday's Show News) with an arrow-planform wing and an inverted-V tail that braces the engines, but it has a high wing that is gull-shaped in front view. The twin engines will deliver 33,000 to 35,000 pounds of thrust each, and all three manufacturers are offering products based on existing cores, but with tailored inlet, fan and nozzle systems. The airplane will use 8,000-foot runways—studies are showing that the market will accept that, says SAI. Target price for the 8-12 passenger jet is $80 million.
SAI and Lockheed Martin have also looked at a stretched version of the QSST with 30 business-class seats for airline use.
