Commercial Supersonic Technology

The Way Ahead

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• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9780309508810
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

High-speed flight is a major technological challenge for both commercial and business aviation. As a first step in revitalizing efforts by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to achieve the technology objective of high-speed air travel, NASA requested the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct a study that would identify approaches for achieving breakthroughs in research and technology for commercial supersonic aircraft. Commercial Supersonic Technology documents the results of that effort. This report describes technical areas where ongoing work should be continued and new focused research initiated to enable operational deployment of an environmentally acceptable, economically viable commercial aircraft capable of sustained supersonic flight, including flight over land, at speeds up to approximately Mach 2 in the next 25 years or less.

Table of contents

• Front Matter
• Preface
• Contents
• Tables, Figures, and Box
• Executive Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Technology Challenges
• 3 New Opportunities for Research on Critical Supersonic Technologies
• 4 Areas Needing Continued Technical Development
• 5 Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations
• A Biographies of Committee Members
• B Participants in Committee Meetings
• C Acronyms and Abbreviations