The future of supersonic transport
designs. The X-59 is adapted to this by not having a cockpit canopy, but instead, they used digital cameras to project the outer environment into a cockpit inside the fuselage. 37 The Overture is wider in the front of the fuselage and becomes increasingly narrower towards the rear. 38
The other method is to have a greater sweep angle of the wings. Supersonic aircraft typically have delta wings, which are triangular wing structure which provides a greater angle of attack at low speed. The leading edge is behind the shock wave boundary, 39 which means there is a smaller effect of drag caused by the shockwave. However, the sweep angle of the wing, which is the angle of the wing translated backwards, 40 could also make a stark difference in 𝐶 𝐷 . The greater the sweep angle, the lower the 𝐶 𝐷 at supersonic speed. 41
Figure 5: Sweep Angle
Modern airliners use high bypass turbofan engines to maximize fuel efficiency. Surprisingly, Boom’s Overture will be using medium bypass turbofan engines developed by Rolls- Royce. 42 Boom’s Chief Executive Blake Scholl justified this choice : ‘ Medium bypass engines and throttle back at take- off get you to Chapter 14 compliance. ’ 43 Using a lower bypass engine potentially means Boom will need to find a compromise for the lower fuel
efficiency. Compared to the Concorde, the material used for the fuselage on Overture is carbon composite material, 44 while the Concorde uses aluminium alloy developed by Rolls Figure 6: Effect of different sweep angles on 𝐶 𝐷 and Mach number
37 Yvette Smith, ‘ A Look Inside the X-59 QueSST Cockpit, ’ NASA , June 19, 2019, https://www.nasa.gov/image- feature/a-look-inside-the-x-59-quesst-cockpit. 38 Helwing Villamizar, ‘ FIA 2022: Boom Supersonic Reveals Refined Overture Design, ’ Airways Magazine , July 19, 2022, https://airwaysmag.com/boom-supersonic-refined-overture-design/. 39 Wikipedia , s.v. ‘ Delta wing, ’ last modified August 6, 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_wing. 40 ‘ Sweep Angle and Supersonic Flight, ’ AeroToolbox, accessed August 23, 2022, https://aerotoolbox.com/intro- sweep-angle/. 41 ‘ Wings and Configurations for High-Speed Flight, ’ NASA History Division, accessed August 23, 2022, https://history.nasa.gov/SP-468/ch10-4.htm. 42 Helwing Villamizar, ‘ FIA 2022: Boom Supersonic Reveals Refined Overture Design, ’ Airways Magazine , July 19, 2022, https://airwaysmag.com/boom-supersonic-refined-overture-design/. 43 The Chapter 14 mentioned is the airworthiness standards regarding aircraft engines and noise levels . See Stephen Trimble, ‘ Boom unveils XB-1 supersonic demonstrator, ’ FlightGlobal, November 15, 2016, https://flightglobal.com/business-aviation/boom-unveils-xb-1-supersonic-demonstrator/122301.article. 44 Boom, ‘ Boom Supersonic Reveals Refined Overture and Announces Landmark Market-Expanding Alliance with Northrop Grumman and New Tier One Suppliers, ’ Boom, July 19, 2022, https://boomsupersonic.com/news/post/boom-supersonic-reveals-refined-overture-and-announces-landmark- market-expanding-alliance-with-northrop-grumman-and-new-tier-one-suppliers.
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