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Supersonic Airliner Problems

Supersonic Airliner Problems Aircraft Engineering TH E MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VOL XXXI No 362 APRIL 1959 engineers would like to tackle the immense and fascinating technical problems, the wisdom of undertaking an exercise in public relations T the time of writing the main topic of discussion in aviation on such a scale and with such possibilities of an unfavourable circles is whether or not we in Britain should build a super­ rebound, seems much open to question. These are the thoughts A sonic airliner. The Committee appointed two years ago to which must come to the mind in any attempt at a practical assess­ look into the matter has produced its report and it is in the hands of ment of the problem, but there is still a chance that if there is the Minister of Supply, but has as yet not been published. It is enough enthusiasm in appropriate quarters these considerations however widely believed that it recommends the construction of a can be swept aside and some project brought to a successful civil airliner with a cruising speed of something under M=2. If this conclusion. is the case, the recommendation may be said to be made obsolete If the M=3 civil aircraft is to be tackled, there is relatively little before its publication by the opinion clearly held in the U.S.A. that knowledge at present in this country which could be applied either to M=3 is a much more worth-while speed. This view emerged at the I.A.S. Symposium on the subject, and it is obviously the intention of airframe or power plant design. At first sight stainless steel is the at least one American manufacturer to proceed with such a project. obvious choice for primary structure, because of the effects of As no British supersonic airliner could be in operation before the aerodynamic heating in this range. The working properties of stain­ less sheet being what they are the upheaval in manufacturing methods American, since American supersonic experience is much greater, entailed by its use will be considerable, particularly on a large air­ there seems little point in going ahead with the M=2 aircraft. This leaves open the question of whether we should try and compete with frame. Power plant problems can hardly be less severe. The Americans America (and presumably also Russia) in the M=3 range. There is no appear to favour the turbojet-ramjet combination for this purpose, doubt that such an aircraft is technically possible, and it is equally but as far as is known little has been done on this type of power plant in this country. At any rate, we have no aircraft flying with this certain that its development cost would be very large. The extent to kind of engine, whereas the French have the most interesting Nord which it would offer operating economies over other civil aircraft is still very much a matter of opinion, and in any case it is unlikely that Griffon, details of which were given recently in the Royal Aero­ the market for an aircraft with such immense work capacity will be. nautical Society's Louis Bleriot Lecture, by INGÉNIEUR. GENERAL DE large enough for the development cost to be covered by sales of L'AI R NOEL DAUM. aircraft. Even if an airline can so arrange things that an aircraft can Such experience as we have at these speeds, or are likely to make several transatlantic flights in each 24-hour day, it is not acquire during the period of development of a project such as is likely to be able to pay a price which will enable a manufacturer to under discussion, is derived from much smaller aircraft; indeed, cover development costs. Development will inevitably be a state so far, from guided weapons only. The extrapolation of such data responsibility, whether begun ostensibly for military applications or to a large machine is not really very reliable. There can be no real with only the transport in view. The present rather doubtful econom­ substitute for many thousands of hours' operation in the appro­ ics of the supersonic airliner, taken with the undoubted American priate flight regime with an aircraft of approximately the right size. lead, make the idea of Britain joining in such a race most unat­ We are once again in the position of having, from reasons of ex­ tractive on any pragmatic assessment. pediency, allowed our research in certain fields to lapse, so that if we are to go ahead with what is the project of the hour, we have to The question now becomes 'Are pragmatic considerations in this proceed by large jumps instead of with an orderly development. It case the right ones?' The subject here becomes largely political. To is made more than ever clear that planning for the aircraft industry press on with the advanced project would for this country be an act must be done with a long term view. Ten years is a relatively short of faith. It is true that it would provide an immense amount of work space of time in a modern aircraft's life history. for an industry which has been showing some signs of distress, but the present Government has made it clear that it considers aircraft Whether or not this supersonic airliner is proceeded with, there can firms and aircraft projects should stand on their own feet, and be be little doubt that we in this country must do our utmost to press financed, and ultimately sold, in the normal commercial fashion. A forward with the less spectacular work of refining the bread and supersonic airliner, however, is not a project likely to attract the butter types of civil aircraft. As the American industry develops, normal business investor, and as we must recognize that there is an the number of aircraft which has to be sold before the break-even appreciable risk of not bringing any such project to a successful point is reached gets larger and larger. As the market for British conclusion, the reasons, which remain to influence Government aircraft is likely, with an occasional exception, to be smaller than thinking are basically matters of prestige. There is no doubt that a that for American, we must specialize in methods of manufacture workable supersonic airliner would be an outstanding proof of the which can bring a reasonable return from a relatively small number technical abilities of this country, even if, as seems all too likely, there of machines. This has always been the problem of the aircraft in­ were virtually no market for it. This has to be balanced against the dustry, but as the work capacity of each aircraft increases and as the risk of an opposite effect if the project resulted in catastrophic machine becomes larger and more complex, this will become still failure. While it is fully understandable that our aeronautical more important. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

Supersonic Airliner Problems

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 31 (4): 1 – Apr 1, 1959
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb033100
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Abstract

Aircraft Engineering TH E MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VOL XXXI No 362 APRIL 1959 engineers would like to tackle the immense and fascinating technical problems, the wisdom of undertaking an exercise in public relations T the time of writing the main topic of discussion in aviation on such a scale and with such possibilities of an unfavourable circles is whether or not we in Britain should build a super­ rebound, seems much open to question. These are the thoughts A sonic airliner. The Committee appointed two years ago to which must come to the mind in any attempt at a practical assess­ look into the matter has produced its report and it is in the hands of ment of the problem, but there is still a chance that if there is the Minister of Supply, but has as yet not been published. It is enough enthusiasm in appropriate quarters these considerations however widely believed that it recommends the construction of a can be swept aside and some project brought to a successful civil airliner with a cruising speed of something under M=2. If this conclusion. is the case, the recommendation may be said to be made obsolete If the M=3 civil aircraft is to be tackled, there is relatively little before its publication by the opinion clearly held in the U.S.A. that knowledge at present in this country which could be applied either to M=3 is a much more worth-while speed. This view emerged at the I.A.S. Symposium on the subject, and it is obviously the intention of airframe or power plant design. At first sight stainless steel is the at least one American manufacturer to proceed with such a project. obvious choice for primary structure, because of the effects of As no British supersonic airliner could be in operation before the aerodynamic heating in this range. The working properties of stain­ less sheet being what they are the upheaval in manufacturing methods American, since American supersonic experience is much greater, entailed by its use will be considerable, particularly on a large air­ there seems little point in going ahead with the M=2 aircraft. This leaves open the question of whether we should try and compete with frame. Power plant problems can hardly be less severe. The Americans America (and presumably also Russia) in the M=3 range. There is no appear to favour the turbojet-ramjet combination for this purpose, doubt that such an aircraft is technically possible, and it is equally but as far as is known little has been done on this type of power plant in this country. At any rate, we have no aircraft flying with this certain that its development cost would be very large. The extent to kind of engine, whereas the French have the most interesting Nord which it would offer operating economies over other civil aircraft is still very much a matter of opinion, and in any case it is unlikely that Griffon, details of which were given recently in the Royal Aero­ the market for an aircraft with such immense work capacity will be. nautical Society's Louis Bleriot Lecture, by INGÉNIEUR. GENERAL DE large enough for the development cost to be covered by sales of L'AI R NOEL DAUM. aircraft. Even if an airline can so arrange things that an aircraft can Such experience as we have at these speeds, or are likely to make several transatlantic flights in each 24-hour day, it is not acquire during the period of development of a project such as is likely to be able to pay a price which will enable a manufacturer to under discussion, is derived from much smaller aircraft; indeed, cover development costs. Development will inevitably be a state so far, from guided weapons only. The extrapolation of such data responsibility, whether begun ostensibly for military applications or to a large machine is not really very reliable. There can be no real with only the transport in view. The present rather doubtful econom­ substitute for many thousands of hours' operation in the appro­ ics of the supersonic airliner, taken with the undoubted American priate flight regime with an aircraft of approximately the right size. lead, make the idea of Britain joining in such a race most unat­ We are once again in the position of having, from reasons of ex­ tractive on any pragmatic assessment. pediency, allowed our research in certain fields to lapse, so that if we are to go ahead with what is the project of the hour, we have to The question now becomes 'Are pragmatic considerations in this proceed by large jumps instead of with an orderly development. It case the right ones?' The subject here becomes largely political. To is made more than ever clear that planning for the aircraft industry press on with the advanced project would for this country be an act must be done with a long term view. Ten years is a relatively short of faith. It is true that it would provide an immense amount of work space of time in a modern aircraft's life history. for an industry which has been showing some signs of distress, but the present Government has made it clear that it considers aircraft Whether or not this supersonic airliner is proceeded with, there can firms and aircraft projects should stand on their own feet, and be be little doubt that we in this country must do our utmost to press financed, and ultimately sold, in the normal commercial fashion. A forward with the less spectacular work of refining the bread and supersonic airliner, however, is not a project likely to attract the butter types of civil aircraft. As the American industry develops, normal business investor, and as we must recognize that there is an the number of aircraft which has to be sold before the break-even appreciable risk of not bringing any such project to a successful point is reached gets larger and larger. As the market for British conclusion, the reasons, which remain to influence Government aircraft is likely, with an occasional exception, to be smaller than thinking are basically matters of prestige. There is no doubt that a that for American, we must specialize in methods of manufacture workable supersonic airliner would be an outstanding proof of the which can bring a reasonable return from a relatively small number technical abilities of this country, even if, as seems all too likely, there of machines. This has always been the problem of the aircraft in­ were virtually no market for it. This has to be balanced against the dustry, but as the work capacity of each aircraft increases and as the risk of an opposite effect if the project resulted in catastrophic machine becomes larger and more complex, this will become still failure. While it is fully understandable that our aeronautical more important.

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 1, 1959

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