Aerion, the guys working on putting together a supersonic business jet (SSBJ), is at this week's Paris Air Show in force, working with potential suppliers and promoting their project. The Reno, Nev.-based company, formed in 2002, says it is "aggressively pursuing the development of a supersonic business jet," but remains in the early stages of developing its engineering and business plans. Its goal is to reintroduce commercial supersonic flight by leveraging advances in laminar flow aerodynamics and other technologies. The company's current efforts have as an objective to present a "profitable program that can swiftly move into full-scale engineering and prototype development." Aerion says this current design and planning phase is fully funded by an investor group led by Robert Bass. Over the past several months, Aerion has been refining its business case, an effort led by Aerion CFO James Stewart, and has held a number of discussions with OEMs laying out the technical and financial aspects of developing the worlds first SSBJ. As presently envisioned, the Aerion SSBJ will fly below Mach 1 over the U.S., but unrestricted supersonic overland flight is available now over national or regional corridors, including parts of Canada, Australia and Siberia. Elsewhere, the company expects the airplane to cruise at about Mach 1.1 to 1.2 by taking advantage of the lower speed of sound at altitude than on the ground. Aerion says its jet will create shock waves, but at low supersonic speeds they dissipate before reaching the surface.Recent milestones in the aircraft's development include:
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/aerion-updates-ssbj-program