Posted on 07/26/2002 9:16:16 AM PDT by lds23
Jul 25th 2002 | FARNBOROUGH
From The Economist print edition
Boeing's Sonic Cruiser is struggling to take off. But even more fantastic models are on the company's drawing-board
AT FIRST sight, it looks like all systems go. Boeing, one of the world's largest aerospace companies, has started wind-tunnel tests at the laboratories of QinetiQ, a privatised defence-research establishment in Britain, of a model of its proposed “Sonic Cruiser”. This aircraft, if it is ever built, would be a 200-250-seater jet that would fly just below the speed of sound.
Boeing's bosses expect QinetiQ's tests to confirm promising numbers that emerged from the computers that helped to design the Sonic Cruiser. These suggest that the plane would be neither a gas-guzzler like Concorde, nor too noisy for modern airports. In other words, it might be a commercial runner. The basic design has been altered. It now bears little resemblance to the sketches released when Boeing launched the concept a year ago, in order to disguise its retreat from the “super-jumbo” market. Those sketches owed more to public relations than to aerodynamics. The new shape should actually stay airborne.
Being a runner, though, does not necessarily mean winning the race. The real barrier the Sonic Cruiser faces is not aerodynamics, but gloomy airlines. To begin with, there was some enthusiasm for a plane that could lop an hour off a transatlantic flight and three off some transpacific ones. But in their present slump, most airlines would probably prefer to see the technological tricks in the Sonic Cruiser (lightweight composite materials and so on) used to make planes that are more economical, rather than faster. Although the Cruiser would be no thirstier than an existing jumbo jet, that might still be too expensive in the future. Sir Richard Branson, boss of Virgin Atlantic and an early supporter, seems to have changed his mind. A few days ago, he poured cold water over the idea at the Farnborough Air Show, in Britain, saying that the Airbus A380 double-decker aircraft was the way of the future.
Cruising into oblivion?
The Sonic Cruiser may thus be a victim of bad timing. Indeed, Boeing now admits that it is talking to the airlines about 250-seater planes of a more conventional design to replace the firm's ageing 767. These aircraft would deploy the same weight-saving technology as the Cruiser, but in pursuit of economy, rather than speed. Boeing will have to choose which way to jump in the next few months, based on the reaction of a group of key airlines.
Holy Cow, Batman!
Even if the Cruiser crashes, Boeing is still looking at ways to escape from the tube-with-wings rut that has constrained commercial-aircraft design from its very beginning. Coincidentally, the firm's next tilt at this windmill is also being helped by British engineers. When funds ran out at NASA, America's aerospace agency, the company turned to Cranfield University to help it design models of its revolutionary “batwing” passenger plane. Blended wing/body (BWB) aircraft, as they are more technically known, were first dreamed up 50 years ago. The best known is the B2 stealth bomber. But none has ever gone into commercial service.
Boeing's first scale-model, developed with NASA, had a five-metre (17-foot) wingspan, and took to the air two years ago. It flew well enough to demonstrate that the design was aerodynamically sound. Now, Boeing and Cranfield are working on a 6.3-metre wingspan version to test the concept further.
Like the Sonic Cruiser, a commercial BWB will probably face scepticism from airlines and passengers. But enthusiasts in Boeing claim encouraging results from trials of mock-ups of the aircraft's interior. The first shock for passengers is to find themselves walking into a room similar to an amphitheatre or a hotel lobby, rather than the half-cylinder of a conventional jet. Another is the lack of windows, the presence of which gives a (falsely) reassuring sense of contact with the outside world in existing planes.
Boeing's answer to this psychological need is video screens linked to external cameras, so passengers can all see the Eiffel Tower whether it is to the port or the starboard of the plane. Another common objection from traditionalists is that seats at the plane's extremities would soar and dip too much as the pilot turns and banks. This is dismissed by George Muellner, the head of Boeing's Phantom Works, the firm's R&D organisation, and one of the champions of BWBs. The Boeing mock-up has simulated such motion and found that it is barely noticeable.
On the upside, there would be a greater feeling of space, the ability to have many more aisles, and a general freedom to move around—so avoiding flying hazards such as deep-vein thrombosis. But the earliest benefits from BWBs are likely to be enjoyed by military and air-freight users, who might be the first customers for the aircraft in about eight years' time.
According to Mr Muellner, BWBs are “volumetrically efficient”. In English, this means that for a given load they need a smaller size. This, he says, translates into a gain of 18-30% in efficiency. Also, freight companies would be able to load standard containers on to a BWB in large numbers, something that is impossible with a conventional aircraft. Air-force chiefs are most interested in the planes as flight-refuelling tankers. Such tankers are increasingly important in modern warfare. A BWB tanker would not only offer better operating economics, but also the possibility, with its huge wing-span, of refuelling up to four fighters at a time. Today, fighters have to queue up behind a tanker like cars at an old village petrol pump.
Feeling the buzz
The third revolutionary aircraft in Boeing's stable is the X-50A, or Dragonfly to its friends. In this case Boeing has managed to find an American partner. The Dragonfly is being created in collaboration with the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. It is one of a number of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) that Boeing is developing in partial compensation for its loss of the huge Joint Strike Fighter contract to its big rival, Lockheed Martin. Like a real dragonfly, the X-50A can stay airborne without moving. But it can also zoom like a jet plane.
Dragonfly is a cross between a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft. It has a conventional turbofan jet engine. For fixed-wing flying the rotor becomes a wing, and the engine's thrust-generating exhaust is blown through a jet at the rear. When it is operating as a helicopter, the exhaust is diverted to the rotor-tips, a concept first developed (but dropped) in Britain about 40 years ago. All this eliminates the need for heavy mechanical transmission gears, so the X-50A is both lighter and cheaper to operate than a conventional helicopter.
Dragonfly's versatility could make a manned version attractive to special forces, which need to move fast, and also like to get into and out of dangerous places as rapidly as possible. The first two demonstrators are due to fly in September. Boeing envisages the UAV being followed by a bigger piloted aircraft. Even if the Sonic Cruiser does not make it to market, that does not mean that no exciting new aircraft are coming along.
Would a big cargo plane with "mag-lev" inside walls suspending special, magnetized containers (therefore floating everything) weigh any more than just an empty plane?
Think about it: A plane suspending a full load of cargo in the inside of the cabin (I'm someone with NO physics background, BTW)would weigh just a little more than an empty one! right?
Please, someone, set me straight!
Get out of my brain ;-)
Time for me to get my drug of choice, I'm going to the cabin and popping a cold one. Have a nice weekend.
Do not neglect the downward thrust of upward-facing projectile vomit...
You're looking at a "C" in Freeper Physics here.
-Boris
If you can somehow apply that scientific principle to air freight and make it work ...you are gonna be rich!!! Keep me in mind when you make it bg!!!
It was not necessary to mention that.
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