2024 Aerion AS2 Supersonic Business Jet Specification Review

2024 Aerion AS2 Supersonic Business Jet Specification Review | Aerion AS2 / SBJ (Supersonic Business Jet), The Aerion SBJ recovers supersonic speed for normal business flights.

2024 Aerion AS2 Supersonic Business Jet Specification Review

MilitaryEzyInfo.com – The Aerion AS2 is a supersonic business jet promoted by American billionaire businessman and philanthropist Robert Bass under the Aerion Corporation brand (founded in Reno, Nevada in 2004).

The aircraft follows the proven supersonic concept introduced decades ago by the famous Concorde supersonic jet, and the AS2 Aerospatial-BAC project aims to provide a more realistic end product for business jet operations.

Initially presented under the name “SBJ”, which stands for Supersonic Business Jet, it was powered by two turbofan engines, which has now been replaced by a three-engine configuration.

As of June 2014, this product is still under development and will be temporarily flight-tested in 2019 with a field launch a year later in 2020.

The original Concorde, which was retired in 2003, was born out of a technological revolution in the 1960s. Although it had an innovative performance for its time, it did not usher in the era of supersonic aircraft that the average pilot had hoped for, it proved to be quite expensive to operate in large numbers, and its use was banned in much of the world’s airspace because of its intense sonic boom. the Aerion AS2 The concept is intended to reduce the threat of sonic booms on the ground by achieving “non-explosive” speeds of Mach 1.0 and above.

Design elements to reduce the level of explosive noise include a more compact size compared to Concorde and advanced avionics to track potential explosions.

The AS2 is supposed to be able to reach speeds of up to Mach 1.2 without creating sonic booms on the ground, and it currently has the airspace margin required in many parts of the world.

This phenomenon is known as “boom cut off” because sonic booms generated at speeds above Mach 1.0 do not reach the ground, but propagate as subsonic waves to about 5,000 feet.

The AS2 has a clean appearance, with a cockpit back and a long nose cone (not like Concorde, where the nose is tilted to make it easier to see the ground).

The wings are short, non-overlapping, and set low with a completely modern laminar impeller intended for specific supersonic flight. In fact, this wing is officially called “Supersonic Natural Laminar Flow (SNLF)”. The cockpit is part of the tubular fuselage, with the vertical tail fin attached at the rear.

The tail is mounted high on the main wing but under the vertical tail fin. The landing gear is a retractable tricycle using a pair of single-wheel nose mounts and twin-wheel main legs.

The engine will be mounted externally at the rear of the glider to maximize airflow efficiency and reduce noise levels during approach and takeoff. It uses a very classic “trijet” layout, with one engine on each side of the rear fuselage, the latter mounted at the root of the tail.

It is 160 feet long, with a wingspan of 70 feet and a height of 26 feet. It is constructed of carbon fiber (fuselage, wings, nacelles, and tail engine), aluminum, steel, and corrosion-resistant titanium (wing leading edges).

There are two pilots on board, and depending on the seating configuration, the aircraft can accommodate up to 11 passengers. The cabin space is about 30 feet, which is comparable to the competitor’s Gulfstream G450 series.

As part of the passenger comforts, there will be a gallery and two toilets, one at the front of the cabin and the other at the back. There is also a dining/conference table in the rear. The cabin itself has the athletic structure required of a business jet, with a ceiling height of 6.2 feet and a wall-to-wall width of 7.3 feet on one side of the aisle.

Rounded rectangular windows provide natural daylight and views of the outside world, and four-passenger seats are configured for overnight stays on longer trips.

The luggage store features a walk-in closet design. The cockpit features a state-of-the-art Fly-By-Wire (FBW) control system and a full-color multi-function display (MFD), which is used in many aircraft, including military aircraft.

In terms of performance, the AS2 is expected to have a maximum Mach 1.6, a long-range cruise speed of Mach 1.4, and fuel consumption of 5,000 nautical miles.

The AS2’s performance will reduce the normal flight time of 14 hours to 9 hours, allowing a transatlantic round trip to be completed in one business day (e.g., Chicago to Frankfurt takes 5 hours, but reaches 51,000 feet and goes through the transonic, supersonic, and subsonic envelopes to achieve the desired result).

The AS2 burns fuel at the same rate regardless of whether it is subsonic or supersonic, making it more fuel-efficient than a conventional Concorde. The maximum free weight is listed as 115,000 pounds and the empty weight as 49,800 feet.

Currently, U.S. federal aviation law prohibits the use of supersonic flight in air travel.

However, regulations have been relaxed somewhat internationally, and the technological advances that US2 may face may ease restrictions on U.S. automobile travel in the coming decades.