|
SST Ambitions
USA After in Britain the Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee had been founded in 1956, resulting in the Bristol 223 project, cooperation talks with the USA were taken up, but failed. In 1958 Douglas and Lockheed announced Mach2 projects. Boeing had studied supersonic passenger transport since 1952, resulting in the proposal of a trans-Atlantic jetliner with “swing-wing” technology, an offshoot of the efforts in the TFX fighter project. President John F. Kennedy, immediately after taking office, asked for a national aviation goals report, which led to a FAA initiative, known as Project Horizon. After announcement of the British-French Concorde in November 1962, FAA director Najeeb Halaby wrote to Kennedy that the USA would lose 50,000 jobs if a supersonic would not be built. In 1963 Kennedy introduced the National Supersonic Transport program, requesting proposals from Boeing, Lockheed, North American and from the engine producers. Lockheed’s proposal, later known as the L-2000, resembled the Concorde, but with individual engine pods. North American’s NAC-60 was a scaled-up XB-70, the speed being reduced to M2.65. In late 1966 Boeing seemed to be the winner with the 733-390 or Boeing 2707-200. It was a 300-seater with a seating layout up to 2+3+2, the “swing-wings” in swept-back position merging with the tailfin, so producing a delta wing. Titan components and a supercritical wing layout were to be other innovations. The 4 General Electric GE4/J5 engines with afterburner were positioned underneath the tailplane. Canard wings were added, but finally the “swing-wing” mechanism proved too heavy and the design gave way to the smaller 234-seater Boeing 2707-300 with a fixed delta wing and separate tailfins. With an operational speed of Mach2.7 it should be faster than the Concorde. Building two prototypes started in 1969 and there were great expectations. “It is obvious that SSTs will carry the majority of long-haul passenger traffic by 1990”, wrote Astronautics and Aeronautics in April 1970. Among the route proposals there were itineraries such as New York – Paris – Tel Aviv – Bombay – Bangkok – Hong Kong, London – Keflavik – Fairbanks – Tokyo or London – Sydney with no less than 4 intermediate refueling stops. Environmentalist opposition, combating the project after test flights of the XB-70, had led to almost 10,000 complaints and “the claimed negative effects became ever odder, including upsetting people who do delicate work, harming persons with nervous ailments and even including miscarriages” (so reported via Wikipedia). Supersonic flight over the US was eventually banned. And there were raising concerns about the danger for Earth’s ozone layer. There had been 115 orders or options, much more than for the Concorde. President Nixon supported the 2707 project, but in 1971 the congress stopped funding. New York’s anti-Concorde campaign may have contributed to the end of America’s object of prestige. The two prototypes were not completed, only the full-size mockup being the reminder of the proudest American civil airplane project. Initially, “… Pan American founder and chairman Juan Trippe has believed that the big subsonic jets would end up as freighters and that the SST would replace the 747 on passenger routes…” (Air & Space, April 2003). The big cargo hold lower deck of the 747 really is an advantage over the supersonic. But not many 747s were bought in the all-cargo version and also the suggestion of 1,000 ton-freighters, even flying-boats, remained a dream. Two decades after Pan Am’s ambitions, once again a headline announced: “It’s time to go supersonic.” And once again the American supersonic did not come, the project was axed in an elegant way when Boeing in 1988 had opted to push for more stringed noise targets. “In 1989 NASA has started an ambitious research program called HSRP (High Speed Research Program …). On the other hand, since 1990 Boeing is working on a plane with 250 seats, which could attain a range of 9,260km” (La Vie du Rail, July13, 1993). The McDonnell Douglas study of a 300-seater for Mach2.4 was still more unrealistic. Europe and Japan British Aerospace studied the ATS (Advanced Supersonic Transport) and Aerospatiale of France targeted the ATSF (Avion de transpoprts supersonique du future). In 1990 they decided to combine the researches. The above-mentioned French report continued: “In France different study groups are working. A program was set up for 1991-92 between Aerospatiale, Onera and Snecma. This association does not hinder Aerospatiale from working on its own project. Called Alliance, that plane could carry 250 passengers, flying at Mach2.05.” The report supposed the choice of new materials (titanium composites) and a Mach2 limit. It mentioned also the SST of Deutsche Airbus and other studies. In 1994 Aerospatiale, British Aerospace and DASA of Daimler-Benz created the European Supersonic Research Program for development of a Mach2.1 or 2.2 long-range supersonic airliner for 250 passengers, thus continuing the earlier researches by Aerospatiale, British Aerospace and others. Drawings showed a four-engined delta-wing configuration. The production of hundreds of aircraft was predicted, whereas critics assumed a need of less than fifty ones (R.E.G. Davies in ‘Airways’, Sep1995). Then Europe concentrated on subsonic jets. In the early 1990s the international multi-company group studying the SST market was joined by the Japanese Industries group JADC. Even after U.S. manufacturers had pulled out of a NASA SST development project, Newsweek stated in August 2000: “Japan wants to share cost of a new SST with the United States and Europe”. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), working on supersonics, had achieved agreements with NASA.
Russia The concept of a beautiful Tu-244, resembling an enlarged and upgraded version of the Tu-144, was described by A.G. Bratukhin (in ‘Russian Aircraft’): “On the basis of the formulated Russian concept of the SPA-2, the Tupolev Science and Technology Complex arrived, in collaboration with the TsAGI, at a preliminary design of the Tu-244 supersonic passenger aircraft. The Tu-244 is a two-mode aircraft developing a supersonic speed of about Mach2 and subsonic flight speed of about 1,000km/h (….). The transatlantic version is rated at a flight range of 7,500km and passenger capacity of 450, while the Pacific version is rated at a flight range of 9,250km and a passenger capacity of 300.” A television report of 1999 by Arte of France showed the refurbished Tu-144LL RA-77114, equipped with NK-321 engines of the bomber Tu-160, with the Russian red/white/blue tailfin colors and a label “Tu-144 MOCKBA”. It was described as being chartered by NASA at a price of $10 million (cheaper than a Concorde charter) for studies in a “Hyperjet” for Mach2 and 300 passengers. The report mentioned Alexander Pukhov as the chief engineer of Tupolev and Alexander Sudakov as the Russian project engineer for the NASA tests. For further studies see the chapter Studies + Prospects.
|
