Professional Pilot, June 2019

Some sample savings are 4 hr 23 min on a New York to Sydney trip stopping in Kona and 1 hr 55 min when flying New York to London non stop What really gives Aerion the edge is GEs Affinity engine It is designed to operate up to 60000 ft and has the highest bypass ratio of any supersonic engine helping the aircraft to meet noise standards It is also equipped with proven Full Authority Digital Engine Control FADEC for added reliability and diagnostic capabilities According to GE the Affinitys unique design allows for balanced performance across supersonic and subsonic flights which is absolutely essential for making the operation of the aircraft economically viable With such consistent investment not to mention the backing of companies like Boeing and GE the AS2 is looking more and more like the real deal Civilian SS aircraft operations There are 2 big questions that remain concerning all civilian supersonic aircraft The first one is about operating costs Can they be made efficient enough to make operations reasonable and practical The Affinity engine provides the most hope that this will become a reality As history has taught us one of the 48 PROFESSIONAL PILOT June 2019 biggest downfalls of the Concorde was cost Lets hope that these companies can learn from this British French faux pas Another cost consideration lies in acquisition A Gulfstream G650 is 65 million while an Aerion is priced at 120 million The runway lengths required by the supersonics are much more limiting than those needed by the Gulfstream 6000 ft The G650 s non stop range is in the neighborhood of 7000 nm while the supersonics hover around just slightly more than half this figure While the G650 has a cruise speed of M 092 the Aerion will be able to deliver M 14 at best When flying over land the difference in cruise speeds is negligible Hopefully the economics will make enough sense to push the supersonics to success The second issue is regulations Currently CFR 14 91817 states a No person may operate a civil aircraft in the United States at a true flight Mach number greater than 1 except in compliance with conditions and limitations in an authorization to exceed Mach 1 issued to the operator under appendix B of this part Moreover sonic booms over land are a no no So while technologies are being incorporated to reduce or eliminate sonic booms even at Aerion AS2 can easily shave an hour off a flight from New York to Los Angeles and 2 hours from NY to London Even with a fuel stop in Kona Aerion claims the AS2 will save almost 45 hours of travel time to Sydney Note that cities marked with yellow dots represent fuel stops low supersonic speeds regulations or exemptions will have to fall into place in order to allow for the leveraging of such aerodynamic improvements over land Apparently new regulations are in the works for 2020 but FAA does not always deliver what is expected Summary With business jet sales fluctuating and generally faltering the entrant of a more expensive albeit faster option still beckons skepticism though the Aerion story does appear to provide hope in contrast to what has seemed to be an impossible dream With the deep pockets of its partners and an engine in the works the AS2 looks like it will fly Further with orders already on the books we can hope to see these aircraft at an airport in the near future With Aerion paving the way one can only hope that the other supersonics will follow suit Lastly with what seems to be a much more flexible and dynamic FAA it can be reasonably expected that these aircraft will be accommodated under new regulations David Ison PhD has 32 years of experience flying aircraft ranging from light singles to widebody jets Currently he is a graduate school professor at Northcentral University Images courtesy Aerion