June 18, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

ÒSonic CruiserÓ is no hedgehog says Boeing

LONDON, June 18, Graphic News: The radically designed Òsonic cruiser,Ó which has been unveiled at the Paris air show, is set to fuel fresh rivalry between the two giants of the aerospace industry.  

The U.S. company Boeing has presented its plans for a passenger plane able to carry 150 to 300 passengers 15 percent faster than existing commercial aircraft.

The proposal, which is a high-speed alternative to the A380 super jumbo, could upset the commercial aircraft market, forcing a burst of product development between Boeing and its European rival Airbus.

The plane is designed to fly just below the speed of sound, which is about 740 miles per hour (1,200kph) at sea level. Although not as fast as Concorde, it will cut an hour off the regular flight time between London and New York and three hours between Singapore and Los Angeles.

To fly at Mach 0.95 -- compared with the Mach 0.80 to 0.86 that jetliners have stuck to for decades -- its design would be radically different to the familiar layout that BoeingÕs 707 established in the early 1950s. The proposed plane would have an aft-mounted wing, partly triangular, with engines hung behind it.

Boeing plans three models seating between 150 and 300 passengers. Boeing predicts that a 200-seater version will roll off the assembly line in 2008.

But sceptics claim the figures do not add up and doubt the Cruiser will ever get off the ground. The tradeoff is increased drag -- which increases exponentially as an airplane nears the speed of sound -- as well as much higher fuel consumption.

Airbus chairman Noel Forgeard said: ÒIt (the Sonic Cruiser) triggers a lot of problems. In particular, fuel burn will be 30 percent higher than in classic airplanes and that goes against environmental protection. 

ÒWe think passengers and airlines (will) expect more economy and environmental protection rather than speed.Ó 

But Harry Stonecipher, vice chairman of Boeing, believes that passengers will choose speed over economy. ÒThe number of people flying will change by four to five percent a year.Ó

Stonecipher himself admits he was surprised when Boeing engineers found solutions, still undisclosed, to the technical phenomenon known as Òmach drag rise.Ó Drag rises alarmingly even at modest speeds: going twice as fast creates four times as much drag. But close to the speed of sound, air resistance builds even faster. 

ÒEverybody said you canÕt do it, that it has to have this or that,Ó Stonecipher said. ÒWe had some fellows who said you donÕt need to have this or that and hereÕs why.Ó

To overcome all that drag, the Sonic Cruiser would be lavishly powered. Although Boeing plans a plane roughly as big as a 250-seat 767, it would use the mighty engines developed for the 777, which are 50 percent bigger and about 50 percent more expensive to run.

Many aerospace experts are wondering whether the Sonic Cruiser is anything more than a public relations exercise, designed to distract attention from BoeingÕs humiliating abandonment of its proposed A380 superjumbo competitor in March. But if the Sonic Cruiser is real, and not just a tool for publicity, then a new round in the Boeing-Airbus fight may just be beginning.
/ENDS

Sources: Reuters, Aviation Week & Space Technology