With the Cessna Citation X set to receive FAA certification in early 2014 and knock the Gulfstream G650 off it's world's fastest civilian aircraft perch thanks to its maximum operating speed of Mach 0.935, Boston-based Spike Aerospace is looking to leave both those aircraft in its wake with its S-512. Spike says its S-512 will be the world's first supersonic business jet, boasting a cruising speed of Mach 1.6, and a maximum speed of Mach 1.8.
The Spike team, made up of engineers with experience at Gulfstream, Eclipse and Airbus, has spent the last couple of years designing the Spike S-512. Initially to be targeted at business users for whom time is money, the aircraft is designed to carry a maximum of up to 18 passengers in the luxury befitting an aircraft with an estimated price tag of between US$60 to $80 million.
The company says the Mach 1.6 to 1.8 speed capabilities of the aircraft will translate to a flight from New York to London taking three to four hours instead of six to seven, and the 14 to 16 hour flight time for a Los Angeles to Tokyo flight cut to eight hours.
Although the aircraft is still at the design and development stage and specifications are still subject to change, Spike currently says the S-512 will have a maximum range of 4,000 nautical miles (4,600 miles/7,400 km). The current design sees the aircraft measuring 131 ft long (40 m), with a wingspan of 60 ft (18 m), and cabin measuring 40 ft (12 m) long, 6.2 ft (2 m) high and 6.2 ft wide.
With potential problems surrounding the sonic boom, which severely limited the market for the Concorde, the Spike team acknowledges that reducing this to acceptable levels to ensure the S-512 meets FAA regulations surrounding sonic booms will be a major challenge. If it can overcome this and other problems, the company hopes the make the first deliveries of the S-512 in December 2018
The company has been playing its cards relatively close to its chest until now, but promises to release more information early in 2014.
The video below introduces the Spike S-512.
Source: Spike Aerospace
The Concorde was designed in the 1960s with slide rules and built just a few years after AT&Ts Princess telephone. Since then, there have been a lot of new technologies in composites, engines and avionics. These can be used to increase fuel efficiency, reduce noise and improve safety.
David: In this aircraft, the center of gravity is a function of the positioning of the fuel tanks. It is controlled during flight by regulating fuel consumption from each tank.
Victor: In this case, business jets are considered aircraft with less than 20 passengers or under a certain max weight. The Concorde with 100 passengers was considered an airliner.
JDJacob: good question. Is time more important than luxury?
@ Mirmillion
Balance issues do not notably affect stall speed.
@ JDJacob
For hours in coach or eight in first class? No contest; coach.
Operating cost is another factor that seems to be missing, and supersonic aircraft will be much more expensive to operate. It would be interesting to have an extended exchange with business leaders comparing the comfort and economy possible with a blended wing/body subsonic aircraft to the shorter flight time of a narrow-bodied, fuel-hungry supersonic.
The landing gear seems unnecessarily tall. Gear that tall wouldn't be able to fold back into a the wing as shown. Look at the head-on rendering. The wing is impossibly thin. The strut of the landing gear is thicker than the wing itself. The rear landing gear looks like it folds inward so that the wheels end up inside the fuselage. However, the wheels are cartoonishly large. No way they would fit. The landing gear doors in the front are ridiculously small. Their small size suggest that the front gear telescopes straight down, from underneath the cockpit area. Again, there is no way they could fit there.
As far as the center of gravity is concerned, I actually do think the plane could balance in the configuration shown. Remember that even a full cabin is still mostly empty space. The engines are big chunks of metal that are much more dense than the rest of the aircraft.
All things considered, I think this is a badly done "artist's concept" of a futuristic plane from the 1960s.