The speed of a sound wave is not constant even if the considered medium of sound propagation is air. The speed of sound at a fixed air temperature and atmospheric pressure changes with increasing altitude above sea level.

As altitude increases, the speed of sound decreases. The conventional reference point for the value is zero sea level. So, the speed at which a sound wave travels along the water surface is equal to 340.29 m/s, provided the ambient air temperature is 15 0 C and the atmospheric pressure is 760 mm. Hg So, airplanes flying at speeds higher than the speed of sound are called supersonic.

First achievement of supersonic speed

Supersonic aircraft are aircraft based on their physical ability to travel at speeds higher than sound waves. In our usual kilometers per hour, this figure is roughly equal to 1200 km/h.

Even airplanes from the Second World War with piston internal combustion engines and propellers creating an air flow during a dive already reached a speed of 1000 km/h. True, according to the stories of the pilots, at these moments the plane began to shake terribly due to strong vibration. The feeling was that the wings could simply come off the fuselage of the plane.

Subsequently, when creating supersonic aircraft, design engineers took into account the effect of air flow on the design of aircraft when reaching the speed of sound.

Overcoming the supersonic barrier by airplane

When an airplane moves among air masses, it literally cuts through the air in all directions, creating a noise effect and waves of air pressure diverging in all directions. When the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, a moment occurs when the sound wave is not able to overtake the aircraft. Because of this, a shock wave appears in front of the front of the aircraft in the form of a dense barrier of air.

The layer of air that appears in front of the aircraft at the moment the aircraft reaches the speed of sound creates a sharp increase in resistance, which is the source of changes in the stability characteristics of the aircraft.

When an airplane flies, sound waves travel from it in all directions at the speed of sound. When the plane reaches speed M=1, that is, the speed of sound, sound waves accumulate in front of it and form a layer of compacted air. At speeds above the speed of sound, these waves form a shock wave that reaches the ground. The shock wave is perceived as a sonic boom, acoustically perceived by the human ear below on the earth's surface as a dull explosion.

This effect can be constantly observed during supersonic aircraft exercises by civilians in the flight area.

Another interesting physical phenomenon during the flight of supersonic aircraft is the visual advance of aircraft by their own sound. The sound is observed with some delay behind the tail of the aircraft.

Mach number in aviation

The theory with a confirming experimental process of the formation of shock waves was demonstrated long before the first flight of a supersonic aircraft by the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach (1838 - 1916). The quantity expressing the ratio of the speed of the aircraft to the speed of the sound wave is called today in honor of the scientist - Mach.

As we have already mentioned in the water part, the speed of sound in the air is affected by meteorological conditions such as pressure, humidity and air temperature. The temperature, depending on the altitude of the aircraft, varies from +50 on the surface of the Earth to -50 in the layers of the stratosphere. Therefore, at different altitudes, local weather conditions must be taken into account to achieve supersonic speeds.

For comparison, above the zero sea level, the speed of sound is 1240 km/h, while at an altitude of more than 13 thousand km. this speed is reduced to 1060 km/h.

If we take the ratio of the speed of the aircraft to the speed of sound as M, then with a value of M>1, it will always be supersonic speed.

Aircraft with subsonic speed have a value of M = 0.8. A range of Mach values ​​from 0.8 to 1.2 sets the transonic speed. But hypersonic aircraft have a Mach number of more than 5. Among the famous Russian military supersonic aircraft, we can distinguish the SU-27 - an interceptor fighter, the Tu-22M - a missile-carrying bomber. Among the American ones, the SR-71 is a reconnaissance aircraft. The first supersonic aircraft in mass production was the American F-100 fighter in 1953.

A model of the space shuttle during testing in a supersonic wind tunnel. A special shadow photography technique made it possible to capture where the shock waves originate.

The first supersonic aircraft

Over the 30 years from 1940 to 1970, the speed of aircraft increased several times. The first flight at transonic speed was made on October 14, 1947 on an American Bell XS-1 aircraft in the state of California over an air base.

The Bell XS-1 jet was piloted by Captain US Air Force Chuck Yeage. He managed to accelerate the device to a speed of 1066 km/h. This test provided a significant piece of data to further push the development of supersonic aircraft.

Supersonic aircraft wing design

Lift and drag increase with speed, so the wings become smaller, thinner and swept in shape, improving streamlining.

In aircraft adapted for supersonic flight, the wings, unlike conventional subsonic aircraft, extended at an acute angle back, resembling an arrowhead. Externally, the wings formed a triangle in a single plane with its acute angled apex at the front of the aircraft. The triangular geometry of the wing made it possible to control the aircraft predictably at the moment of crossing the sound barrier and, as a result, to avoid vibrations.

There are models that used wings with variable geometry. At the time of takeoff and landing, the angle of the wing relative to the aircraft was 90 degrees, that is, perpendicular. This is necessary to create maximum lift at the time of takeoff and landing, that is, at the moment when the speed decreases and the lift at an acute angle with unchanged geometry reaches its critical minimum. As speed increases, the wing geometry changes to a maximum acute angle at the base of the triangle.

Record-breaking aircraft

During the race for record speeds in the sky, the Bell-X15 aircraft, on board which was equipped with a rocket engine, achieved record speed 6.72 or 7200 km/h in 1967. This record could not be broken after a long time.

And only in 2004, the NASA X-43 unmanned hypersonic aerial vehicle, which was developed to fly at hypersonic speeds, was able to accelerate to a record 11,850 km/h during its third flight.

The first two flights ended unsuccessfully. To date, this is the highest aircraft speed figure.

Supersonic car testing

This Thrust SSC supersonic jet car is powered by 2 aircraft engines. In 1997, he became the first land-based vehicle breaking the sound barrier. As with supersonic flight, a shock wave appears in front of the car.

The approach of a car is silent, because all the noise created is concentrated in the shock wave following it.

Supersonic aircraft in civil aviation

As for civil supersonic aircraft, there are only 2 known production aircraft that perform regular flights: Soviet TU-144 and French Concorde. TU-144 made its debut flight in 1968. These devices were designed for long-distance transatlantic flights. Flight times were significantly reduced in comparison with subsonic devices by increasing the flight altitude to 18 km, where the aircraft used an uncongested air corridor and avoided cloud loading.

The first civilian supersonic aircraft of the USSR TU-144 completed its flights in 1978 due to their unprofitability. The final point in the decision to refuse to operate it on regular flights was made due to the disaster of a prototype TU-144D during its testing. Although it is worth noting that beyond civil aviation The TU-144 aircraft continued to be used for urgent mail and cargo delivery from Moscow to Khabarovsk until 1991.

Meanwhile, despite the expensive tickets, the French supersonic aircraft Concorde continued to provide air services for its European customers until 2003. But in the end, despite the richer social class of European residents, the question of unprofitability was still inevitable.

“Turn on supersonic!”

Supersonic passenger aircraft - what do we know about them? At least that they were created relatively long ago. But, for various reasons, they were not used for as long and not as often as they could have. And today, they exist only as design models.

Why is that? What is the peculiarity and “secret” of supersonic sound? Who created this technology? And also – what will be the future of supersonic aircraft in the world, and of course – in Russia? We will try to answer all these questions.

"Farewell flight"

So, fifteen years have passed since the last three functioning supersonic passenger aircraft made their last flights, after which they were written off. This was back in 2003. Then, on October 24, they all together “said goodbye to the sky.” The last time we flew at low altitude, over the capital of Great Britain.

Then we landed at London Heathrow Airport. These were Concorde-type aircraft owned by the aviation company British Airways. And with such a “farewell flight” they ended a very short history of passenger transportation at speeds exceeding sound...

That's what you might have thought a few years ago. But now it is already possible to say with confidence. This is the finale of only the first stage of this story. And probably all its bright pages are yet to come.

Today - preparation, tomorrow - flight

Today, many companies and aircraft designers are thinking about the prospects of supersonic passenger aviation. Some are making plans to revive it. Others are already preparing for this with all their might.

After all, if it could exist and function effectively just a few decades ago, today, with technologies that have seriously stepped forward, it is quite possible not only to revive it, but also to solve a number of problems that forced leading airlines to abandon it.

And the prospects are too tempting. The possibility of flying, say, from London to Tokyo in five hours seems very interesting. Cross the distance from Sydney to Los Angeles in six hours? And get from Paris to New York in three and a half? With passenger aircraft, which are capable of flying at higher speeds than sound travels, this is not at all difficult.

But, of course, before the triumphant “return” of such air space, - scientists, engineers, designers, and many others - still have a lot of work to do. It's not just about restoring what once was by offering a new model. Not at all.

The goal is to solve many problems associated with passenger supersonic aviation. Creation of aircraft that will not only demonstrate the capabilities and power of the countries that built them. But they will also turn out to be really effective. So much so that they occupy a worthy niche in aviation.

History of "supersonic" Part 1. What happened in the beginning...

Where did it all begin? In fact, from simple passenger aviation. And he has been like this for more than a century. Its design began in the 1910s in Europe. When craftsmen from the most developed countries of the world created the first aircraft, the main purpose of which was to transport passengers over various distances. That is, a flight with many people on board.

The first among them is the French Bleriot XXIV Limousine. It belonged to the aircraft manufacturing company Bleriot Aeronautique. However, it was used mainly for the amusement of those who paid for pleasure “walks”-flights on it. Two years after its creation, an analogue appears in Russia.

It was the S-21 Grand. It was designed on the basis of the Russian Knight, a heavy bomber created by Igor Sikorsky. And the construction of this passenger aircraft was carried out by workers of the Baltic Carriage Plant.

Well, after that, progress could no longer be stopped. Aviation developed rapidly. And the passenger one, in particular. At first there were flights between specific cities. Then the planes were able to cover distances between states. Finally, aircraft began to cross oceans and fly from one continent to another.

Developing technologies and an increasing number of innovations allowed aviation to travel very quickly. Much sooner than trains or ships. And for her there were practically no barriers. There was no need to change from one transport to another, not only, say, when traveling to some particularly distant “end of the world”.

Even when it is necessary to cross land and water at once. Nothing stopped the planes. And this is natural, because they fly over everything - continents, oceans, countries...

But time was passing quickly, the world was changing. Of course, the aviation industry also developed. Airplanes over the next few decades, right up to the 1950s, changed so much when compared with those that flew back in the early 1920s and 30s that they became something completely different, special.

And so, in the middle of the twentieth century, the development of the jet engine began at a very rapid pace, even in comparison with the previous twenty to thirty years.

A small informational digression. Or - a little physics

Advanced developments have allowed aircraft to “accelerate” to speeds greater than the speed at which sound travels. Of course, first of all, this was applied in military aviation. After all, we are talking about the twentieth century. Which, sad to say, was a century of conflicts, two world wars, the “cold” struggle between the USSR and the USA...

And almost every new technology created by the leading states of the world was primarily considered from the point of view of how it could be used in defense or attack.

So, airplanes could now fly at unprecedented speeds. Faster than sound. What is its specificity?

First of all, it is obvious that this is a speed that exceeds the speed at which sound travels. But, remembering the basic laws of physics, we can say that in different conditions, it may differ. And “exceeds” is a very loose concept.

And that’s why there is a special standard. Supersonic speed is one that exceeds sound speed up to five times, taking into account the fact that depending on temperature and other factors environment, it may change.

For example - if we take normal atmospheric pressure at sea level, then in this case the speed of sound will be equal to an impressive figure - 1191 km/h. That is, 331 meters are covered in a second.
But what is especially important when designing supersonic aircraft is that as you gain altitude, the temperature decreases. This means the speed with which sound travels is quite significant.

So let's say, if you rise to a height of 20 thousand meters, then here it will already be 295 meters per second. But there is another important point.

At 25 thousand meters above sea level, the temperature begins to rise, since this is no longer the lower layer of the atmosphere. And so it goes on. Or rather, higher. Let's say at an altitude of 50,000 meters it will be even hotter. Consequently, the speed of sound there increases even more.

I wonder - for how long? Having risen 30 kilometers above sea level, you find yourself in a “zone” where sound travels at a speed of 318 meters per second. And at 50,000 meters, respectively – 330 m/s.

About the Mach number

By the way, it is interesting that to simplify the understanding of the features of flight and work in such conditions, the Mach number is used in aviation. general description such, can be reduced to the following conclusions. It expresses the speed of sound that occurs under given conditions, at a particular altitude, at a given temperature and air density.

For example, the flight speed, which is equal to two Mach numbers, at an altitude of ten kilometers above the ground, under normal conditions, will be equal to 2,157 km/h. And at sea level - 2,383 km/h.

History of "supersonic" Part 2. Overcoming barriers

By the way, for the first time, a pilot from the USA, Chuck Yeager, achieved flight speeds of more than Mach 1. This happened in 1947. Then he “accelerated” his plane, flying at an altitude of 12.2 thousand meters above the ground, to a speed of 1066 km/h. This is how the first supersonic flight took place on earth.

Already in the 1950s, work began on design and preparation for mass production. passenger aircraft, capable of flying at speeds faster than sound. They are led by scientists and aircraft designers from the most powerful countries in the world. And they manage to succeed.

The same Concorde, a model that will finally be abandoned in 2003, was created in 1969. This is a joint British-French development. The symbolically chosen name is “Concorde”, from French, translated as “concord”.

It was one of two existing types of supersonic passenger aircraft. Well, the creation of the second (or rather, chronologically, the first) is the merit of the aircraft designers of the USSR. The Soviet equivalent of the Concorde is called the Tu-144. It was designed in the 1960s and made its first flight on December 31, 1968, a year before the British-French model.

To this day, no other types of supersonic passenger aircraft have been implemented. Both the Concorde and the Tu-144 flew thanks to turbojet engines, which were specially rebuilt in order to operate at supersonic speed for a long time.

The Soviet analogue of the Concorde was operated for a significantly shorter period. Already in 1977 it was abandoned. The plane flew at an average speed of 2,300 kilometers per hour and could carry up to 140 passengers at a time. But at the same time, the price of a ticket for such a “supersonic” flight was two, two and a half, or even three times more than for an ordinary one.

Of course, such things were not in great demand among Soviet citizens. And maintaining the Tu-144 was not easy and expensive. That’s why they were abandoned so quickly in the USSR.

Concordes lasted longer, although tickets for the flights they flew were also expensive. And the demand was not great either. But still, despite this, they continued to be exploited, both in Great Britain and in France.

If you recalculate the cost of a Concorde ticket in the 1970s at today's exchange rate, it will be about two tens of thousands of dollars. For a one way ticket. One can understand why the demand for them was somewhat less than for flights using aircraft that do not reach supersonic speeds.

Concorde could take on board from 92 to 120 passengers at a time. He flew at a speed of more than 2 thousand km/h and covered the distance from Paris to New York in three and a half hours.

Several decades passed like this. Until 2003.

One of the reasons for the refusal to operate this model was a plane crash that occurred in 2000. At that time, there were 113 people on board the crashed Concorde. They all died.

Later, an international crisis began in the field of passenger air transportation. Its cause is the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, in the United States.

Moreover, on top of that, the warranty period for Concorde service by Airbus is ending. All this together made the further operation of supersonic passenger aircraft extremely unprofitable. And in 2003, all Concordes were written off one by one, both in France and in the UK.

Hopes

After this, there were still hopes for a quick “return” of supersonic passenger aircraft. Aircraft designers talked about creating special engines that would save fuel, despite the flight speed. We talked about improving the quality and optimizing the main avionics systems on such aircraft.

But, in 2006 and 2008, new regulations of the International Civil Aviation Organization were issued. They defined the latter (they are valid, by the way, also on this moment) standards for permissible aircraft noise during flight.

And supersonic planes, as you know, did not have the right to fly over populated areas, that’s why. After all, they produced strong noise pops (also due to the physical characteristics of the flight) when they moved at maximum speeds.

This was the reason that the “planning” of the “revival” of supersonic passenger aviation was somewhat slowed down. However, in fact, after the introduction of this requirement, aircraft designers began to think about how to solve this problem. After all, it also took place before, it’s just that the “ban” focused attention on it – the “noise problem”.

What about today?

But ten years have passed since the last “ban”. And planning smoothly turned into design. Today, several companies and government organizations are engaged in the creation of passenger supersonic aircraft.

Which ones exactly? Russian: Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (the same one that is named after Zhukovsky), Tupolev and Sukhoi companies. Russian aircraft designers have an invaluable advantage.

The experience of Soviet designers and creators of the Tu-144. However, it is better to talk about domestic developments in this area separately and in more detail, which is what we propose to do next.

But it’s not just the Russians who are creating a new generation of supersonic passenger aircraft. This is also a European concern - Airbus, and the French company Dassault. Among the companies in the United States of America that are working in this direction are Boeing and, of course, Lockheed Martin. In the land of the rising sun, the main organization designing such an aircraft is the Aerospace Research Agency.

And this list is by no means complete. It is important to clarify that the overwhelming majority of professional aircraft designers working in this field are divided into two groups. Regardless of country of origin.

Some believe that it is in no way possible to create a “quiet” supersonic passenger aircraft at the current level of technological development of mankind.

Therefore, the only way out is to design a “simply fast” airliner. It, in turn, will go to supersonic speed in those places where this is allowed. And when flying, for example, over populated areas, return to subsonic.

Such “jumps,” according to this group of scientists and designers, will reduce flight time to the minimum possible, and not violate the requirements for noise effects.

Others, on the contrary, are full of determination. They believe that it is possible to fight the cause of the noise now. And they made a lot of efforts to prove that it is quite possible to build a supersonic airliner that flies quietly in the very coming years.

And a little more fun physics

So, when flying at a speed of more than Mach 1.2, the airframe of the aircraft generates shock waves. They are strongest in the tail and nose areas, as well as some other parts of the aircraft, such as the edges of the air intakes.

What is a shock wave? This is an area where air density, pressure and temperature experience sudden changes. They occur when moving at high speeds, faster than sound speed.

To people who are standing on the ground, despite the distance, it seems that some kind of explosion is happening. Of course, we are talking about those who are in relative proximity - under the place where the plane flies. That is why flights were banned supersonic aviation over cities.

It is precisely such shock waves that representatives of the “second camp” of scientists and designers are fighting against, who believe in the possibility of leveling out this noise.

If we go into detail, the reason for this is literally a “collision” with air at a very high speed. At the wave front there is a sharp and strong increase in pressure. At the same time, immediately after it, there is a drop in pressure, and then a transition to a normal pressure indicator (the same as it was before the “collision”).

However, a classification of wave types has already been carried out and potentially optimal solutions have been found. All that remains is to complete the work in this direction and make the necessary adjustments to the aircraft designs, or create them from scratch, taking into account these amendments.

In particular, NASA specialists came to realize the need for structural changes in order to reform the characteristics of the flight as a whole.

Namely, changing the specificity of shock waves, as far as possible at the current technological level. What is achieved by restructuring the wave, through specific design changes. As a result, the standard wave is considered as an N-type, and the one that occurs during flight, taking into account the innovations proposed by experts, as an S-type.

And with the latter, the “explosive” effect of pressure changes is significantly reduced, and people located below, for example, in a city, if an airplane flies over them, even when they hear such an effect, it is only like a “distant slam of a car door.”

Shape is also important

In addition, for example, Japanese aviation designers, not so long ago, in mid-2015, created an unmanned glider model D-SEND 2. Its shape is designed in a special way, allowing to significantly reduce the intensity and number of shock waves that occur when the device flies at supersonic speed.

The effectiveness of the innovations proposed in this way by Japanese scientists was proven during tests of D-SEND 2. These were carried out in Sweden in July 2015. The course of the event was quite interesting.

The glider, which was not equipped with engines, was raised to a height of 30.5 kilometers. By using hot air balloon. Then he was thrown down. During the fall, he “accelerated” to a speed of Mach 1.39. The length of D-SEND 2 itself is 7.9 meters.

After the tests, Japanese aircraft designers were able to confidently declare that the intensity of the shock waves when their brainchild flies at a speed exceeding the speed of sound propagation is two times less than that of the Concorde.

What are the features of D-SEND 2? First of all, its nose is not axisymmetric. The keel is shifted towards it, and at the same time, the horizontal tail unit is installed as all-moving. It is also located at a negative angle to the longitudinal axis. And at the same time, the tail tips are located lower than the attachment point.

The wing, smoothly connected to the fuselage, is made with normal sweep, but stepped.

According to approximately the same scheme, now, as of November 2018, the supersonic passenger AS2 is being designed. Professionals from Lockheed Martin are working on it. The customer is NASA.

Also, the Russian SDS/SPS project is now at the stage of improving its form. It is planned that it will be created with an emphasis on reducing the intensity of shock waves.

Certification and... another certification

It is important to understand that some projects of passenger supersonic aircraft will be implemented in the early 2020s. At the same time, the rules established International organization civil aviation, in 2006 and 2008, will still be in effect.

This means that if before that time there is no serious technological breakthrough in the field of “quiet supersonic”, then it is likely that aircraft will be created that will reach speeds above one Mach only in zones where this is permitted.

And after that, when the necessary technologies do appear, in such a scenario, many new tests will have to be carried out. In order for aircraft to obtain permission to fly over populated areas. But these are only speculations about the future; today it is very difficult to say anything for sure on this matter.

Question of price

Another problem mentioned earlier is the high cost. Of course, today, many engines have already been created that are much more economical than those that were used twenty or thirty years ago.

In particular, those that can provide aircraft movement at supersonic speed are now being designed, but at the same time do not “eat up” as much fuel as the Tu-144 or Concorde.

How? First of all, this is the use of ceramic composite materials, which reduce temperatures, and this is especially important in hot zones of power plants.

In addition, the introduction of another, third, air circuit - in addition to the external and internal ones. Leveling the rigid coupling of a turbine with a fan, inside an aircraft engine, etc.

But nevertheless, even thanks to all these innovations, it cannot be said that supersonic flight, in today’s realities, is economical. Therefore, in order for it to become accessible and attractive to the general public, work to improve engines is extremely important.

Perhaps the current solution would be a complete redesign of the design, experts say.

By the way, it will also not be possible to reduce the cost by increasing the number of passengers per flight. Because those aircraft that are being designed today (meaning, of course, supersonic aircraft) are designed to transport a small number of people - from eight to forty-five.

A new engine is a solution to the problem

Among the latest innovations in this area, it is worth noting the innovative jet turbofan power plant created this year, 2018, by GE Aviation. In October it was introduced under the name Affinity.

This engine is planned to be installed on the mentioned AS2 passenger model. There are no significant technological “new products” in this type of power plants. But at the same time, it combines the features of jet engines with high and low bypass ratios. Which makes the model very interesting for installation on a supersonic aircraft.

Among other things, the creators of the engine claim that during testing it will prove its ergonomics. The fuel consumption of the power plant will be approximately equal to that which can be recorded for standard airliner engines currently in operation.

That is, this is a claim that the power plant of a supersonic aircraft will consume approximately the same amount of fuel as a conventional airliner that is not capable of accelerating to speeds above Mach one.

How this will turn out is still difficult to explain. Since the design features of the engine are not currently being disclosed by its creators.

What could they be - Russian supersonic airliners?

Of course, today there are many specific projects for supersonic passenger aircraft. However, not all are close to implementation. Let's look at the most promising ones.

So, Russian aircraft manufacturers who inherited the experience of Soviet masters deserve special attention. As mentioned earlier, today, within the walls of TsAGI named after Zhukovsky, according to its employees, the creation of the concept of a supersonic passenger plane new generation.

The official description of the model, provided by the press service of the institute, mentions that it is a “light, administrative” aircraft, “with a low level of sonic boom.” The design is carried out by specialists, employees of this institution.

Also, in a message from the TsAGI press service it is mentioned that thanks to the special layout of the aircraft body and the special nozzle on which the noise suppression system is installed, this model will demonstrate the latest achievements in the technological development of the Russian aircraft industry.

By the way, it is important to mention that among the most promising TsAGI projects, in addition to what has been described, is a new configuration of passenger airliners called the “flying wing.” It implements several particularly relevant improvements. Specifically, it makes it possible to improve aerodynamics, reduce fuel consumption, etc. But for non-supersonic aircraft.

Among other things, this institute has repeatedly presented finished projects that have attracted the attention of aviation enthusiasts from all over the world. Let’s say, one of the latest, a model of a supersonic business jet, capable of traveling up to 7,000 kilometers without refueling, and reaching a speed of 1.8 thousand km/h. This was presented at the exhibition “Gidroaviasalon-2018”.

“...design is going on all over the world!”

In addition to the Russian ones mentioned above, the following models are also the most promising. American AS2 (capable of speeds up to Mach 1.5). Spanish S-512 (speed limit - Mach 1.6). And also, currently at the design stage in the USA, Boom, from Boom Technologies (well, it will be able to fly at a maximum speed of Mach 2.2).

There is also the X-59, which is being created for NASA by Lockheed Martin. But it will be a flying scientific laboratory, not a passenger plane. And no one has planned to put it into mass production yet.

The plans of Boom Technologies are interesting. Employees of this company say that they will try to reduce the cost of flights on the supersonic airliners created by the company as much as possible. For example, they can give an approximate price for a flight from London to New York. This is about 5000 US dollars.

For comparison, this is how much a ticket costs for a flight from the English capital to “New” York, on a regular or “subsonic” plane, in business class. That is, the price of a flight on an airliner capable of flying at speeds greater than Mach 1.2 will be approximately equal to the cost of an expensive ticket on an airplane that could not make the same fast flight.

However, Boom Technologies bet on creating a “quiet” supersonic passenger airliner will not work out in the near future. 'Cause them boom will fly on maximum speed, which it is capable of developing, only over water spaces. And when you are above land, switch to a smaller one.

Given that the Boom will be 52 meters long, it will be able to carry up to 45 passengers at a time. According to the plans of the company designing the aircraft, the first flight of this new product should occur in 2025.

What is currently known about another promising project – AS2? It will be able to carry significantly fewer people - only eight to twelve people per flight. In this case, the length of the liner will be 51.8 meters.

Over water, it is planned to be able to fly at a speed of Mach 1.4-1.6, and over land - 1.2. By the way, in the latter case, thanks to its special shape, the plane, in principle, will not generate shock waves. For the first time, this model should take to the air in the summer of 2023. In October of the same year, the aircraft will make its first flight across the Atlantic.

This event will be timed to coincide with a memorable date - the twentieth anniversary of the day the Concordes last flew over London.

Moreover, the Spanish S-512 will take to the skies for the first time no later than the end of 2021. And deliveries of this model to customers will begin in 2023. The maximum speed of this aircraft is Mach 1.6. It can accommodate 22 passengers on board. The maximum flight range is 11.5 thousand km.

The client is the head of everything!

As you can see, some companies are trying very hard to complete the design and begin creating aircraft as quickly as possible. For whom are they willing to rush in such a hurry? Let's try to explain.

So, during 2017, for example, the volume of air passenger traffic amounted to four billion people. Moreover, 650 million of them flew long distances, spending from 3.7 to thirteen hours on the way. Next - 72 million out of 650, moreover, they flew first or business class.

It is these 72,000,000 people, on average, that those companies that are engaged in the creation of supersonic passenger aircraft are counting on. The logic is simple - it is possible that many of them will not mind paying a little more for a ticket, provided that the flight will be approximately twice as fast.

But, even despite all the prospects, many experts reasonably believe that the active progress of supersonic aviation, created for the transport of passengers, may begin after 2025.

This opinion is confirmed by the fact that the mentioned “flying” laboratory X-59 will first take to the air only in 2021. Why?

Research and Outlook

The main purpose of its flights, which will take place over several years, will be to collect information. The fact is that this aircraft must fly over various populated areas at supersonic speed. Residents of these settlements have already expressed their consent to conduct tests.

And after the laboratory plane completes its next “experimental flight”, people living in those populated areas, over which it flew, must talk about the “impressions” that they received during the time when the airliner was above their heads. And especially clearly express how the noise was perceived. Did it affect their livelihoods, etc.

The data collected in this way will be transmitted to the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States. And after their detailed analysis by specialists, a ban on flights may be possible. supersonic airliners over populated land areas will be cancelled. But in any case, this will not happen before 2025.

In the meantime, we can watch the creation of these innovative aircraft, which will soon mark the birth of a new era of supersonic passenger aviation with their flights!

A typical passenger plane flies at a speed of about 900 km/h. A military fighter jet can reach approximately three times the speed. However, modern engineers from the Russian Federation and other countries of the world are actively developing even faster machines - hypersonic aircraft. What are the specifics of the relevant concepts?

Criteria for a hypersonic aircraft

What is a hypersonic aircraft? This is usually understood as a device capable of flying at a speed many times higher than that of sound. Researchers' approaches to determining its specific indicator vary. A common methodology is that an aircraft should be considered hypersonic if it is a multiple of the speed indicators of the fastest modern supersonic vehicles. Which are about 3-4 thousand km/h. That is, a hypersonic aircraft, if you adhere to this methodology, must reach a speed of 6 thousand km/h.

Unmanned and controlled vehicles

The approaches of researchers may also differ in terms of determining the criteria for classifying a particular device as an aircraft. There is a version that only those machines that are controlled by a person can be classified as such. There is a point of view according to which an unmanned vehicle can also be considered an aircraft. Therefore, some analysts classify machines of the type in question into those that are subject to human control and those that function autonomously. Such a division may be justified, since unmanned vehicles can have much more impressive technical characteristics, for example, in terms of overload and speed.

At the same time, many researchers consider hypersonic aircraft as a single concept, for which the key indicator is speed. It doesn’t matter whether a person sits at the helm of the device or the machine is controlled by a robot - the main thing is that the plane is fast enough.

Take off - independently or with outside help?

There is a widespread classification of hypersonic aircraft, which is based on classifying them into the category of those that are capable of taking off on their own, or those that require placement on a more powerful carrier - a rocket or a cargo plane. There is a point of view according to which it is right to include mainly those that are capable of taking off independently or with minimal involvement of other types of equipment as devices of the type under consideration. However, those researchers who believe that the main criterion characterizing a hypersonic aircraft, speed, should be paramount in any classification. Whether the aircraft is classified as unmanned, controlled, capable of taking off on its own or with the help of other machines - if the corresponding indicator reaches the above values, then it means that we are talking about a hypersonic aircraft.

Main problems of hypersonic solutions

The concepts of hypersonic solutions are many decades old. Throughout the years of development of the corresponding type of devices, world engineers have been solving a number of significant problems that objectively prevent the production of “hypersonics” from being put into production - similar to organizing the production of turboprop aircraft.

The main difficulty in designing hypersonic aircraft is creating an engine that can be sufficiently energy efficient. Another problem is lining up the necessary apparatus. The fact is that the speed of a hypersonic aircraft in the values ​​​​that we discussed above implies strong heating of the body due to friction with the atmosphere.

Today we will look at several examples of successful prototypes of aircraft of the corresponding type, the developers of which were able to make significant progress in successfully solving the noted problems. Let us now study the most famous world developments in terms of creating hypersonic aircraft of the type in question.

from Boeing

The fastest hypersonic aircraft in the world, according to some experts, is the American Boeing X-43A. Thus, during testing of this device, it was recorded that it reached speeds exceeding 11 thousand km/h. That is approximately 9.6 times faster

What is especially remarkable about the X-43A hypersonic aircraft? The characteristics of this aircraft are as follows:

The maximum speed recorded in tests is 11,230 km/h;

Wingspan - 1.5 m;

Body length - 3.6 m;

Engine - direct-flow, Supersonic Combustion Ramjet;

Fuel - atmospheric oxygen, hydrogen.

It can be noted that the device in question is one of the most environmentally friendly. The fact is that the fuel used practically does not emit harmful combustion products.

The X-43A hypersonic aircraft was developed jointly by NASA engineers, as well as Orbical Science Corporation and Minocraft. was created about 10 years ago. About $250 million was invested in its development. The conceptual novelty of the aircraft in question is that it was conceived with the aim of testing the latest technology for providing propulsion.

Development from Orbital Science

The Orbital Science company, which, as we noted above, took part in the creation of the X-43A, also managed to create its own hypersonic aircraft - the X-34.

Its top speed is more than 12 thousand km/h. True, during practical tests it was not achieved - moreover, it was not possible to achieve the indicator shown by the X43-A aircraft. The aircraft in question is accelerated when the Pegasus rocket, which operates on solid fuel, is activated. The X-34 was first tested in 2001. The aircraft in question is significantly larger than the Boeing aircraft - its length is 17.78 m, its wingspan is 8.85 m. The maximum flight altitude of the hypersonic vehicle from Orbical Science is 75 kilometers.

Aircraft from North American

Another famous hypersonic aircraft is the X-15, produced by North American. Analysts classify this apparatus as experimental.

It is equipped, which gives some experts a reason not to classify it, in fact, as an aircraft. However, the presence of rocket engines allows the device, in particular, to perform So, during one of the tests in this mode, it was tested by pilots. The purpose of the X-15 device is to study the specifics of hypersonic flights, evaluate certain design solutions, new materials, and control features of such machines in various layers of the atmosphere. It is noteworthy that it was approved back in 1954. The X-15 flies at a speed of more than 7 thousand km/hour. Its flight range is more than 500 km, its altitude exceeds 100 km.

The fastest production aircraft

The hypersonic vehicles we studied above actually belong to the research category. It will be useful to consider some production models of aircraft that are close in characteristics to hypersonic ones or are (according to one methodology or another) hypersonic ones.

Among such machines is the American development of the SR-71. Some researchers are not inclined to classify this aircraft as hypersonic, since its maximum speed is about 3.7 thousand km/h. Among its most notable characteristics is its take-off weight, which exceeds 77 tons. The length of the device is more than 23 m, the wingspan is more than 13 m.

The Russian MiG-25 is considered one of the fastest military aircraft. The device can reach speeds of more than 3.3 thousand km/h. Maximum take-off weight Russian plane- 41 tons.

Thus, in the market for serial solutions with characteristics close to hypersonic ones, the Russian Federation is among the leaders. But what can be said about Russian developments regarding “classic” hypersonic aircraft? Are engineers from the Russian Federation capable of creating a solution that is competitive with machines from Boeing and Orbital Scence?

Russian hypersonic vehicles

At the moment, the Russian hypersonic aircraft is under development. But it is going quite actively. It's about about the Yu-71 aircraft. Its first tests, judging by media reports, were carried out in February 2015 near Orenburg.

It is assumed that the aircraft will be used for military purposes. Thus, a hypersonic vehicle will be able, if necessary, to deliver destructive weapons over considerable distances, monitor the territory, and also be used as an element of attack aircraft. Some researchers believe that in 2020-2025. The Strategic Missile Forces will receive about 20 aircraft of the corresponding type.

There is information in the media that the Russian hypersonic aircraft in question will be mounted on the Sarmat ballistic missile, which is also at the design stage. Some analysts believe that the Yu-71 hypersonic vehicle being developed is nothing more than a warhead that will have to be separated from the ballistic missile at the final stage of flight and then, thanks to the high maneuverability characteristic of the aircraft, overcome missile defense systems.

Project "Ajax"

Among the most notable projects related to the development of hypersonic aircraft is Ajax. Let's study it in more detail. The Ajax hypersonic aircraft is a conceptual development of Soviet engineers. In the scientific community, conversations about it began back in the 80s. Among the most notable characteristics is the presence of a thermal protection system, which is designed to protect the case from overheating. Thus, the developers of the Ajax apparatus proposed a solution to one of the “hypersonic” problems we identified above.

The traditional thermal protection scheme for aircraft involves placing special materials on the body. The Ajax developers proposed a different concept, according to which it was supposed not to protect the device from external heat, but to let heat inside the machine, while simultaneously increasing its energy resource. The main competitor of the Soviet aircraft was considered the hypersonic aircraft “Aurora”, created in the USA. However, due to the fact that designers from the USSR significantly expanded the capabilities of the concept, the new development was assigned a wide range of tasks, in particular research ones. We can say that the Ajax is a hypersonic multi-purpose aircraft.

Let's take a closer look at the technological innovations proposed by engineers from the USSR.

So, the Soviet developers of Ajax proposed using the heat generated as a result of friction of the aircraft body with the atmosphere and converting it into useful energy. Technically, this could be realized by placing additional shells on the device. As a result, something like a second corps was formed. Its cavity was supposed to be filled with some kind of catalyst, for example, a mixture of flammable material and water. The heat-insulating layer made of solid material in Ajax was supposed to be replaced with a liquid one, which, on the one hand, was supposed to protect the engine, on the other, would promote a catalytic reaction, which, meanwhile, could be accompanied by an endothermic effect - the movement of heat from the outside body parts inward. Theoretically, the cooling of the external parts of the device could be anything. The excess heat, in turn, was supposed to be used to increase the efficiency of the aircraft engine. At the same time, this technology would make it possible to generate free hydrogen as a result of the reaction of the fuel.

At the moment, there is no information available to the general public about the continuation of the development of Ajax, however, researchers consider the implementation of Soviet concepts into practice to be very promising.

Chinese hypersonic vehicles

China is becoming a competitor to Russia and the United States in the hypersonic solutions market. Among the most famous developments of engineers from China is the WU-14 aircraft. It is a hypersonic controlled glider mounted on a ballistic missile.

An ICBM launches an aircraft into space, from where the vehicle sharply dives down, developing hypersonic speed. The Chinese device can be mounted on various ICBMs with a range from 2 to 12 thousand km. It was found that during tests, the WU-14 was able to reach a speed exceeding 12 thousand km/h, thus becoming the fastest hypersonic aircraft according to some analysts.

At the same time, many researchers believe that it is not entirely legitimate to classify the Chinese development as an aircraft. Thus, there is a widespread version according to which the device should be classified specifically as a warhead. And very effective. When flying downward at the specified speed, even the most modern missile defense systems will not be able to guarantee interception of the corresponding target.

It can be noted that Russia and the United States are also developing hypersonic vehicles used for military purposes. At the same time, the Russian concept, according to which it is supposed to create machines of the appropriate type, differs significantly, as evidenced by data in some media, from the technological principles implemented by the Americans and the Chinese. Thus, developers from the Russian Federation are concentrating their efforts in the field of creating aircraft equipped with a ramjet engine that can be launched from the ground. Russia plans to cooperate in this direction with India. Hypersonic vehicles created according to the Russian concept, according to some analysts, are characterized by lower cost and a wider range of applications.

At the same time, the Russian hypersonic aircraft, which we mentioned above (Yu-71), suggests, as some analysts believe, deployment on ICBMs. If this thesis turns out to be correct, then we can say that engineers from the Russian Federation are working simultaneously in two popular conceptual directions in the construction of hypersonic aircraft.

Summary

So, probably the fastest hypersonic aircraft in the world, if we talk about aircraft regardless of their classification, is still the Chinese WU-14. Although you need to understand that real information about it, including those related to tests, may be classified. This is quite consistent with the principles of Chinese developers, who often strive to keep their military technologies secret at all costs. The speed of the fastest hypersonic aircraft is more than 12 thousand km/h. The American development of the X-43A is “catching up” with it - many experts consider it to be the fastest. Theoretically, the hypersonic aircraft X-43A, as well as the Chinese WU-14, can catch up with the development from Orbical Science, designed for a speed of more than 12 thousand km/h.

The characteristics of the Russian Yu-71 aircraft are not yet known to the general public. It is quite possible that they will be close to the parameters of the Chinese aircraft. Russian engineers are also developing a hypersonic aircraft capable of taking off independently, rather than based on an ICBM.

Current projects of researchers from Russia, China and the United States are in one way or another related to the military sphere. Hypersonic aircraft, regardless of their possible classification, are considered primarily as carriers of weapons, most likely nuclear. However, in the works of researchers from different countries of the world there are theses that “hypersonic”, like nuclear technologies, may well be peaceful.

The issue is the emergence of affordable and reliable solutions that make it possible to organize mass production of machines of the appropriate type. The use of such devices is possible in the widest range of sectors of economic development. Hypersonic aircraft are likely to find greatest demand in the space and research industries.

As production technologies for the corresponding vehicles become cheaper, transport businesses may begin to show interest in investing in such projects. Industrial corporations and providers of various services may begin to consider “hypersonic” as a tool for increasing business competitiveness in terms of organizing international communications.

Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic aircraft developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. Along with Concorde, it is one of only two supersonic airliners ever used by airlines for commercial travel.

In the 60s, projects to create a passenger supersonic aircraft with a maximum speed of 2500-3000 km/h and a flight range of at least 6-8 thousand km were actively discussed in aviation circles in the USA, Great Britain, France and the USSR. In November 1962, France and Great Britain signed an agreement on the joint development and construction of Concorde (Concord).

Creators of a supersonic aircraft

In the Soviet Union, the design bureau of academician Andrei Tupolev was involved in the creation of a supersonic aircraft. At a preliminary meeting of the Design Bureau in January 1963, Tupolev stated:

“Reflecting on the future of air transportation of people from one continent to another, you come to a clear conclusion: supersonic airliners are undoubtedly needed, and I have no doubt that they will come into use…”

The academician's son, Alexey Tupolev, was appointed as the lead designer of the project. More than a thousand specialists from other organizations worked closely with his design bureau. The creation was preceded by extensive theoretical and experimental work, which included numerous tests in wind tunnels and natural conditions during analogue flights.

Concorde and Tu-144

The developers had to rack their brains to find the optimal design for the machine. The speed of the designed airliner is fundamentally important - 2500 or 3000 km/h. The Americans, having learned that the Concorde is designed for 2500 km/h, announced that just six months later they would release their passenger Boeing 2707, made of steel and titanium. Only these materials could withstand the heating of the structure when in contact with air flow at speeds of 3000 km/h and above without destructive consequences. However, solid steel and titanium structures still have to undergo serious technological and operational testing. This will take a lot of time, and Tupolev decides to build a supersonic aircraft from duralumin, designed for a speed of 2500 km/h. The American Boeing project was subsequently completely closed.

In June 1965, the model was shown at the annual Paris Air Show. Concorde and Tu-144 turned out to be strikingly similar to each other. Soviet designers said - nothing surprising: the general shape is determined by the laws of aerodynamics and the requirements for a certain type of machine.

Supersonic aircraft wing shape

But what should the wing shape be? We settled on a thin delta wing with the front edge shaped like the letter “8”. The tailless design - inevitable with such a design of the load-bearing plane - made the supersonic airliner stable and well controllable in all flight modes. Four engines were located under the fuselage, closer to the axis. The fuel is placed in coffered wing tanks. The trim tanks, located in the rear fuselage and wing swells, are designed to change the position of the center of gravity during the transition from subsonic to supersonic flight speeds. The nose was made sharp and smooth. But how can pilots have forward visibility in this case? They found a solution - the “bowing nose.” The fuselage had a circular cross-section and had a cockpit nose cone that tilted downward at an angle of 12 degrees during takeoff and 17 degrees during landing.

A supersonic plane takes to the skies

The first supersonic aircraft took to the skies on the last day of 1968. The car was flown by test pilot E. Elyan. As a passenger aircraft, it was the first in the world to overcome the speed of sound in early June 1969, at an altitude of 11 kilometers. The supersonic aircraft reached the second speed of sound (2M) in mid-1970, at an altitude of 16.3 kilometers. The supersonic aircraft incorporates many design and technical innovations. Here I would like to note such a solution as the front horizontal tail. When using PGO, flight maneuverability was improved and speed was reduced during landing. The domestic supersonic aircraft could be operated from two dozen airports, while the French-English Concorde, having a high landing speed, could land only at a certified airport. The designers of the Tupolev Design Bureau did a colossal job. Take, for example, full-scale tests of a wing. They took place on a flying laboratory - the MiG-21I, modified specifically for testing the design and equipment of the wing of the future supersonic aircraft.

Development and modification

Work on the development of the basic design of “044” went in two directions: the creation of a new economical afterburning turbojet engine of the RD-36-51 type and a significant improvement in the aerodynamics and design of the supersonic aircraft. The result of this was to meet the requirements for supersonic flight range. The decision of the commission of the USSR Council of Ministers on the version of the supersonic aircraft with the RD-36-51 was made in 1969. At the same time, at the proposal of the MAP - MGA, a decision is made, before the creation of the RD-36-51 and their installation on a supersonic aircraft, on the construction of six supersonic aircraft with NK-144A with reduced specific fuel consumption. The design of serial supersonic aircraft with the NK-144A was supposed to be significantly modernized, significant changes in aerodynamics would be carried out, obtaining a Kmax of more than 8 in supersonic cruising mode. This modernization was supposed to ensure the fulfillment of the requirements of the first stage in terms of range (4000-4500 km), in the future it was planned to transition to series on RD-36-51.

Construction of a modernized supersonic aircraft

Construction of the pre-production modernized Tu-144 (“004”) began at MMZ “Experience” in 1968. According to calculated data with NK-144 engines (Cp = 2.01), the estimated supersonic range should have been 3275 km, and with NK-144A (Cp = 1.91) it should have exceeded 3500 km. In order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics in cruising mode M = 2.2, the wing planform was changed (the sweep of the floating part along the leading edge was reduced to 76°, and the base part was increased to 57°), the shape of the wing became closer to “Gothic”. Compared to "044", the wing area has increased, and a more intense conical twist of the wing ends has been introduced. However, the most important innovation in wing aerodynamics was the change in the middle part of the wing, which ensured self-balancing in cruising mode with minimal losses quality, taking into account optimization for flight deformations of the wing in this mode. The length of the fuselage was increased to accommodate 150 passengers, and the shape of the nose was improved, which also had a positive effect on aerodynamics.

Unlike “044”, each pair of engines in paired engine nacelles with air intakes was moved apart, freeing the lower part of the fuselage from them, unloading it from increased temperature and vibration loads, while changing the lower surface of the wing in the place of the calculated area of ​​flow compression, increasing the gap between the lower surface wing and the upper surface of the air intake - all this made it possible to more intensively use the effect of compressing the flow at the entrance to the air intakes on the Kmax than was possible to achieve on the “044”. The new layout of the engine nacelles required changes to the chassis: the main landing gear was placed under the engine nacelles, with them retracted inside between the air ducts of the engines, they switched to an eight-wheeled trolley, and the scheme for retracting the nose landing gear also changed. An important difference between the “004” and the “044” was the introduction of a front multi-section destabilizer wing retractable in flight, which extended from the fuselage during takeoff and landing modes, and made it possible to provide the required balancing when the elevons-flaps were deflected. Improvements to the design, an increase in payload and fuel reserves led to an increase in take-off weight, which exceeded 190 tons (for “044” - 150 tons).

Pre-production Tu-144

Construction of pre-production supersonic aircraft No. 01-1 (tail No. 77101) was completed at the beginning of 1971, and made its first flight on June 1, 1971. According to the factory test program, the vehicle completed 231 flights, lasting 338 hours, of which 55 hours flew at supersonic speed. This machine was used to work out complex issues regarding the interaction of the power plant in various flight modes. On September 20, 1972, the car flew along the Moscow-Tashkent highway, while the route was covered in 1 hour 50 minutes, the cruising speed during the flight reached 2500 km/h. The pre-production vehicle became the basis for the deployment of serial production at the Voronezh Aviation Plant (VAZ), which, by decision of the government, was entrusted with the development of a supersonic aircraft in a series.

First flight of the production Tu-144

The first flight of serial supersonic aircraft No. 01-2 (tail No. 77102) with NK-144A engines took place on March 20, 1972. In the series, based on the results of tests of the pre-production vehicle, the aerodynamics of the wing were adjusted and its area was once again slightly increased. The take-off weight in the series reached 195 tons. By the time of operational testing of production vehicles, the specific fuel consumption of the NK-144A was intended to be increased to 1.65-1.67 kg/kgf/hour by optimizing the engine nozzle, and subsequently to 1.57 kg/kgf/hour, while the flight range should was increased to 3855-4250 km and 4550 km, respectively. In reality, they were able to achieve by 1977, during testing and development of the Tu-144 and NK-144A series, Average = 1.81 kg/kgf hour in cruising supersonic thrust mode 5000 kgf, Average = 1.65 kg/kgf hour in takeoff afterburner thrust mode 20,000 kgf, Av = 0.92 kg/kgf per hour in the cruising subsonic mode of thrust 3000 kgf and in the maximum afterburning mode in the transonic mode we received 11,800 kgf. A fragment of a supersonic aircraft.

Flights and tests of a supersonic aircraft

First stage of testing

In a short period of time, in strict accordance with the program, 395 flights were completed with a total flight time of 739 hours, including more than 430 hours in supersonic modes.

Second stage of testing

At the second stage of operational testing, in accordance with the joint order of the ministers of aviation industry and civil aviation dated September 13, 1977 No. 149-223, a more active connection of civil aviation facilities and services took place. A new testing commission was formed, headed by Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation B.D. Rude. By decision of the commission, then confirmed by a joint order dated September 30 - October 5, 1977, crews were appointed to conduct operational tests:

  1. First crew: pilots B.F. Kuznetsov (Moscow State Transport Administration), S.T. Agapov (ZhLIiDB), navigator S.P. Khramov (MTU GA), flight engineers Yu.N. Avaev (MTU GA), Yu.T. Seliverstov (ZhLIiDB), leading engineer S.P. Avakimov (ZhLIiDB).
  2. Second crew: pilots V.P. Voronin (MSU GA), I.K. Vedernikov (ZhLIiDB), navigator A.A. Senyuk (MTU GA), flight engineers E.A. Trebuntsov (MTU GA) and V.V. Solomatin (ZhLIiDB), leading engineer V.V. Isaev (GosNIIGA).
  3. Third crew: pilots M.S. Kuznetsov (GosNIIGA), G.V. Voronchenko (ZhLIiDB), navigator V.V. Vyazigin (GosNIIGA), flight engineers M.P. Isaev (MTU GA), V.V. Solomatin (ZhLIiDB), leading engineer V.N. Poklad (ZhLIiDB).
  4. Fourth crew: pilots N.I. Yurskov (GosNIIGA), V.A. Sevankaev (ZhLIiDB), navigator Yu.A. Vasiliev (GosNIIGA), flight engineer V.L. Venediktov (GosNIIGA), leading engineer I.S. Mayboroda (GosNIIGA).

Before the start of testing, a lot of work was done to review all the materials received in order to use them “for credit” for meeting specific requirements. However, despite this, some civil aviation specialists insisted on implementing the “Operational Test Program for Supersonic Aircraft,” developed at GosNIIGA back in 1975 under the leadership of leading engineer A.M. Teteryukov. This program essentially required the repetition of previously completed flights in the amount of 750 flights (1200 flight hours) on MGA routes.

The total volume of operational flights and tests for both stages will be 445 flights with 835 flight hours, of which 475 hours are in supersonic modes. 128 paired flights were performed on the Moscow-Alma-Ata route.

The final stage

The final stage of testing was not stressful from a technical point of view. Rhythmic work according to schedule was ensured without serious failures or major defects. The engineering and technical crews “had fun” by assessing household equipment in preparation for passenger transportation. Flight attendants and relevant specialists from GosNIIGA, who were involved in the tests, began to conduct ground training to develop the technology for servicing passengers in flight. The so-called “pranks” and two technical flights with passengers. The “raffle” was held on October 16, 1977 with a complete simulation of the cycle of ticket check-in, baggage check-in, passenger boarding, flight of actual duration, passenger disembarkation, baggage check-in at the destination airport. There was no end to the “passengers” (the best workers of OKB, ZhLIiDB, GosNIIGA and other organizations). The diet during the “flight” was at the highest level, since it was based on the first class menu, everyone enjoyed it very much. The “raffle” made it possible to clarify many important elements and details of passenger service. On October 20 and 21, 1977, two technical flights were carried out along the Moscow-Alma-Ata highway with passengers. The first passengers were employees of many organizations that were directly involved in the creation and testing of the supersonic aircraft. Today it is even difficult to imagine the atmosphere on board: there was a feeling of joy and pride, great hope for development against the backdrop of first-class service, to which technical people are absolutely not accustomed. On the first flights, all the heads of the parent institutes and organizations were on board.

The road is open for passenger traffic

The technical flights took place without serious problems and showed the full readiness of the supersonic aircraft and all ground services To regular transportation. On October 25, 1977, the Minister of Civil Aviation of the USSR B.P. Bugaev and the Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR V.A. Kazakov approved the main document: “Act on the results of operational tests of a supersonic aircraft with NK-144 engines” with a positive conclusion and conclusions.

Based on the presented tables of compliance of the Tu-144 with the requirements of the Temporary Airworthiness Standards for Civilian Tu-144 of the USSR, the full volume of submitted evidentiary documentation, including acts on state and operational tests, on October 29, 1977, Chairman of the State Aviation Register of the USSR I.K. Mulkijanov approved the conclusion and signed the first airworthiness certificate in the USSR, type No. 03-144, for a supersonic aircraft with NK-144A engines.

The road was open for passenger traffic.

The supersonic aircraft could land and take off at 18 airports in the USSR, while Concorde, whose takeoff and landing speed was 15% higher, required a separate landing certificate for each airport. According to some experts, if the Concorde engines had been placed in the same way as the Tu-144, the accident on July 25, 2000 would not have occurred.

According to experts, the design of the Tu-144 airframe was ideal, but the shortcomings concerned the engines and various systems.

The second production copy of a supersonic aircraft

In June 1973, the 30th International Paris Air Show took place in France. The interest generated by the Soviet Tu-144 airliner, the world's first supersonic aircraft, was enormous. On June 2, thousands of visitors to the air show in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget watched the second production copy of a supersonic aircraft take to the runway. The roar of four engines, a powerful take-off - and now the car is in the air. The sharp nose of the airliner straightened and aimed at the sky. The supersonic Tu, led by Captain Kozlov, made its first demonstration flight over Paris: having gained the required altitude, the car went beyond the horizon, then returned and circled over the airfield. The flight proceeded normally, no technical problems were noted.

The next day, the Soviet crew decided to show everything that the new one was capable of.

Disaster during demonstration

The sunny morning of June 3 did not seem to foretell trouble. At first everything went according to plan - the audience raised their heads and applauded in unison. The supersonic aircraft, showing the “top class”, began to descend. At that moment, a French Mirage fighter appeared in the air (as it later turned out, it was filming an air show). A collision seemed inevitable. In order not to crash into the airfield and spectators, the crew commander decided to rise higher and pulled the steering wheel towards himself. However, the height had already been lost, creating large loads on the structure; As a result, the right wing cracked and fell off. A fire started there, and a few seconds later the flaming supersonic plane rushed to the ground. A terrible landing occurred on one of the streets of the Parisian suburb of Goussainville. The giant machine, destroying everything in its path, crashed to the ground and exploded. The entire crew - six people - and eight Frenchmen on the ground were killed. Goosenville also suffered - several buildings were destroyed. What led to the tragedy? According to most experts, the cause of the disaster was the attempt of the crew of a supersonic aircraft to avoid a collision with the Mirage. During landing, the Tu was caught in a wake from the French Mirage fighter.

Video: Tu-144 crash in 1973: how it happened

This version is given in Gene Alexander’s book “Russian Airplanes Since 1944” and in an article in Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine for June 11, 1973, written on fresh tracks. The authors believe that pilot Mikhail Kozlov landed on the wrong runway - either due to a mistake by the flight director, or due to the carelessness of the pilots. The controller noticed the error in time and warned the Soviet pilots. But instead of going around, Kozlov made a sharp turn - and found himself right in front of the French Air Force fighter. At that time, the co-pilot was filming a story about the Tu crew for French television with a movie camera and therefore was not wearing a seatbelt. During the maneuver, he fell onto the center console, and while he was returning to his place, he had already lost altitude. Kozlov sharply pulled the steering wheel towards himself - overload: the right wing could not stand it. Here is another explanation for the terrible tragedy. Kozlov received orders to get the most out of the car. Even during takeoff, at low speed, he took an almost vertical angle. For a liner with such a configuration, this is fraught with enormous overloads. As a result, one of the external nodes could not stand it and fell off.

According to the employees of the A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau, the cause of the disaster was the connection of an undebugged analog block of the control system, which led to a destructive overload.

The spy version belongs to writer James Alberg. Briefly it is like this. The Soviets tried to “furnish” the Concorde. Group N.D. Kuznetsova created good engines, but they could not operate at low temperatures, unlike the Concorde ones. Then Soviet intelligence officers got involved. Penkovsky, through his agent Greville Wine, obtained part of the Concorde drawings and sent them to Moscow through an East German trade representative. British counterintelligence thus identified the leak, but instead of arresting the spy, it decided to let disinformation into Moscow through his own channels. As a result, the Tu-144 was born, very similar to the Concorde. It is difficult to establish the truth, since the “black boxes” did not clarify anything. One was found in Bourges, at the crash site, but, judging by reports, damaged. The second one was never discovered. It is believed that the “black box” of a supersonic aircraft has become a point of contention between the KGB and the GRU.

According to the pilots, emergency situations occurred on almost every flight. On May 23, 1978, the second supersonic plane crashed. An improved experimental version of the airliner, Tu-144D (No. 77111), after a fuel fire in the engine nacelle area of ​​the 3rd power plant due to the destruction of the fuel line, smoke in the cabin and the crew turning off two engines, made an emergency landing on a field near the village of Ilyinsky Pogost, not far from the city Yegoryevsk.

After landing, crew commander V.D. Popov, co-pilot E.V. Elyan and navigator V.V. Vyazigin left the plane through the cockpit window. Engineers V.M. Kulesh, V.A. Isaev, V.N. Stolpovsky, who were in the cabin, left the aircraft through the front entrance door. Flight engineers O. A. Nikolaev and V. L. Venediktov found themselves trapped in their workplace by structures that were deformed during landing and died. (The deflected nose cone touched the ground first, worked like a bulldozer blade, picking up soil, and rotated under its belly, entering the fuselage.) On June 1, 1978, Aeroflot stopped supersonic passenger flights forever.

Improving supersonic aircraft

Work on improving the supersonic aircraft continued for several more years. Five production aircraft were produced; another five were under construction. A new modification has been developed - Tu-144D (long-range). However, the choice of a new engine (more economical), RD-36-51, required significant redevelopment of the aircraft, especially power plant. Serious design gaps in this area led to a delay in the release of the new airliner. Only in November 1974, the serial Tu-144D (tail number 77105) took off, and nine (!) years after its first flight, on November 1, 1977, the supersonic aircraft received a certificate of airworthiness. Passenger flights opened on the same day. During their short operation, the liners carried 3,194 passengers. On May 31, 1978, flights were stopped: a fire broke out on one of the production Tu-144Ds, and the airliner suffered a disaster, crashing during an emergency landing.

The disasters in Paris and Yegoryevsk led to the fact that interest in the project on the part of the state decreased. From 1977 to 1978, 600 problems were identified. As a result, already in the 80s, it was decided to remove the supersonic aircraft, explaining this with “a bad effect on people’s health when crossing the sound barrier.” Nevertheless, four out of five Tu-144Ds in production were still completed. Subsequently, they were based in Zhukovsky and took to the air as flying laboratories. A total of 16 supersonic aircraft were built (including long-range modifications), which made a total of 2,556 sorties. By the mid-90s, ten of them had survived: four in museums (Monino, Kazan, Kuibyshev, Ulyanovsk); one remained at the plant in Voronezh, where it was built; another one was in Zhukovsky along with four Tu-144Ds.

Subsequently, the Tu-144D was used only for cargo transportation between Moscow and Khabarovsk. In total, the supersonic aircraft made 102 flights under the Aeroflot flag, of which 55 were passenger flights (3,194 passengers were carried).

Later, supersonic aircraft made only test flights and a few flights to set world records.

The Tu-144LL was equipped with NK-32 engines due to the lack of serviceable NK-144 or RD-36-51, similar to those used on the Tu-160, various sensors and test monitoring and recording equipment.

A total of 16 Tu-144 airliners were built, which made a total of 2,556 sorties and flew 4,110 hours (among them, aircraft 77144 flew the most, 432 hours). The construction of four more airliners was never completed.

What happened to the planes

In total, 16 - sides 68001, 77101, 77102, 77105, 77106, 77107, 77108, 77109, 77110, 77111, 77112, 77113, 77114, 77115, 7716 and 77144.

Those remaining in flying condition do not currently exist. The sides of Tu-144LL No. 77114 and TU-144D No. 77115 are almost completely complete with parts and can be restored to flight condition.

In repairable condition, TU-144LL No. 77114, which was used for NASA tests, is stored at the airfield in Zhukovsky.

TU-144D No. 77115 is also stored at the airfield in Zhukovsky. In 2007, both airliners were repainted and exhibited for public viewing at the MAKS-2007 air show.

No. 77114 and No. 77115 will most likely be installed as monuments or displayed at the airfield in Zhukovsky. In 2004-2005, some transactions were made with them to sell them for scrap metal, but protests from the aviation community led to their preservation. The danger of selling them for scrap metal has not been completely eliminated. The questions of whose ownership they will become have not been finally resolved.

The photograph contains the signature of the first cosmonaut who landed on the moon, Neil Armstrong, pilot cosmonaut Georgiy Timofeevich Beregovoy and all the dead crew members. Supersonic aircraft No. 77102 crashed during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show. All 6 crew members (Honored test pilot Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Kozlov, test pilot V.M. Molchanov, navigator G.N. Bazhenov, deputy chief designer, engineer Major General V.N. Benderov, leading engineer B.A. Pervukhin and flight engineer A.I. Dralin) died.

From left to right. Six crew members on board supersonic aircraft No. 77102: Honored Test Pilot Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Kozlov, Test Pilot V.M. Molchanov, Navigator G.N. Bazhenov, Deputy Chief Designer, Engineer Major General V.N. Benderov, leading engineer B.A. Pervukhin and flight engineer A.I. Dralin (unfortunately, she did not specify who is in order). Next is the pilot-cosmonaut twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Beregovoy Georgy Timofeevich, behind him on the left is Lavrov Vladimir Aleksandrovich, then the first American cosmonaut to land on the moon Neil Armstrong, then (standing behind Neil) - Stepan Gavrilovich Korneev (head of the Internal Affairs Directorate from the Department of External Relations Presidium of the Academy of Sciences), in the center Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev - Soviet aircraft designer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Colonel General, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, Hero of Labor of the RSFSR, then Alexander Alexandrovich Arkhangelsky, chief designer of the plant, Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Honored Scientist and technicians of the RSFSR, Hero of Socialist Labor. Far right is Tupolev Alexey Andreevich (son of A.N. Tupolev) - Russian aircraft designer, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1984, Hero of Socialist Labor. The photo was taken in 1970. Captions on the photo of G.T. Beregovoy and Neil Armstrong.

Concord

Concorde accident.

Currently, the liner is not in operation due to the disaster on July 25, 2000. On April 10, 2003, British Airways and Air France announced their decision to cease commercial operations of their Concorde fleet. Last flights took place on October 24. Concorde's final flight took place on November 26, 2003, with G-BOAF (the last aircraft built) departing Heathrow, flying over the Bay of Biscay, passing over Bristol, and landing at Filton Airport.

Why are supersonic aircraft no longer in use?

Tupolev's supersonic aircraft is often called the "lost generation." Intercontinental flights are recognized as uneconomical: per hour of flight, a supersonic plane burns eight times more fuel than a regular passenger plane. For the same reason, long-distance flights to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok were not justified. It is not advisable to use the supersonic Tu as a transport airliner due to its small carrying capacity. Is it true, Passenger Transportation it nevertheless became a prestigious and profitable business for Aeroflot, although tickets were considered very expensive at that time. Even after the official closure of the project, in August 1984, the head of the Zhukovsky flight test base Klimov, the head of the design department Pukhov and deputy chief designer Popov, with the support of supersonic flight enthusiasts, restored and commissioned two airliners, and in 1985 they obtained permission to fly for setting world records. The crews of Aganov and Veremey set more than 18 world records in the class of supersonic aircraft - in speed, climb rate and flight range with cargo.

On March 16, 1996, a series of research flights of the Tu-144LL began in Zhukovsky, which marked the beginning of the development of the second generation of supersonic passenger airliners.

95-99 years. The supersonic aircraft with tail number 77114 was used by the American NASA as a flying laboratory. Received the name Tu-144LL. The main purpose is research and testing of American developments to create our own modern supersonic aircraft for passenger transportation.

Aircraft designers were faced with the task of further increasing their speed. Higher speed expanded the combat capabilities of both fighters and bombers.

The supersonic era began with the flight of Chuck Yeager, an American test pilot, on October 14, 1947, on an experimental Bell X-1 aircraft with an XLR-11 rocket engine that reached supersonic speed in controlled flight.

Development

The 60s-70s of the 20th century were marked by the rapid development of supersonic aviation. The main problems of aircraft stability and controllability and their aerodynamic efficiency were solved. The high flight speed also made it possible to increase the ceiling to over 20 km, which was important for reconnaissance aircraft and bombers. At that time, before the advent of anti-aircraft missile systems capable of hitting targets at high altitudes, the main principle of using bombers was to fly to the target at the highest possible altitude and speed. During these years, supersonic aircraft for a wide variety of purposes were built and put into production - fighters, bombers, interceptors, fighter-bombers, reconnaissance aircraft (the first supersonic all-weather interceptor - Convair F-102 Delta Dagger; the first supersonic long-range bomber - Convair B-58 Hustler) .

Nowadays, new aircraft are appearing, including those made using Stealth technology to reduce visibility.

Comparative diagrams of Tu-144 and Concorde

Passenger supersonic aircraft

In the history of aviation, there have only been two passenger supersonic aircraft operating on regular flights. The Soviet Tu-144 aircraft made its first flight on December 31, 1968, and was in operation from 1978 to 1978. Two months later, on March 2, 1969, the Anglo-French Concorde (fr. Concorde- “consent”) made transatlantic flights from 2003 to 2003. Their operation made it possible not only to significantly reduce flight time on long-distance flights, but also to use uncongested airspace for high altitude(≈18 km), while the main airspace used by airliners (altitudes 9-12 km) was already significantly congested in those years. Also, supersonic aircraft flew along straight routes (outside air routes).

Theoretical issues

Flight at supersonic speed, in contrast to subsonic speed, proceeds according to different laws, since when an object reaches the speed of sound, the aerodynamic flow pattern changes qualitatively, due to which aerodynamic drag increases sharply, kinetic heating of the structure increases, the aerodynamic focus shifts, which leads to loss of stability and aircraft controllability. In addition, a hitherto unknown phenomenon called “wave resistance” appeared.

Therefore, achieving the speed of sound and efficient flight were impossible by simply increasing engine power; new design solutions were required. The consequence was a change in the appearance of the aircraft - characteristic straight lines and sharp corners appeared, in contrast to the “smooth” shape of subsonic aircraft.

It should be noted that the task of creating an effective supersonic aircraft cannot yet be considered solved. The creators have to make a compromise between the requirement to increase speed and maintain acceptable takeoff and landing characteristics. Thus, the conquest of new frontiers in speed and altitude by aviation is associated not only with the use of a more advanced or fundamentally new propulsion system and a new aircraft layout, but also with changes in their geometry in flight. Such changes, while improving the aircraft's performance at high speeds, should not worsen their performance at low speeds, and vice versa. Recently, creators have been refusing to reduce the wing area and the relative thickness of their profiles, as well as increasing the wing sweep angle of aircraft with variable geometry, returning to low-sweep wings and a large relative thickness, if satisfactory maximum speed and ceiling values ​​have already been achieved. In this case, it is considered important that a supersonic aircraft has good performance at low speeds and reduced drag at high speeds, especially at low altitudes.

Notes

see also


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