Lockheed QSP studies (military and civil)

Jemiba

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Do you mean this design ?
This picture was shown on more than one site in the net,
but IIRC in the FlugRevue, it was said, that it's a Sukhoi project ... ???
 

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That was actually a Gulfstream-Sukhoi design

I think there is another thread somewhere with all the current supersonic bizjet designs: Aerion, Falcon SST, Gulfstream QST, SAI QSST and the European HiSAC research programme.
 
I got this cover pic a while ago from Matej, but my search for this issue of Aerospace America is not successfull so far. We see known QSP concept in plan view from Northrop here, as well as QSP/LRSA V-tail concept I never seen before. Can someone add something on this - may be you have this issue?
 

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That is Lockheed'S QSP design. Northrop's was the weird joined-wing design. Here is the PopSci version of the Lockheed designs and a Northrop QSP image.
 

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CammNut - Thanks a bunch! - in fact 'interview with Kresa' cover misleaded me:)
 
Is this the current lockheed QSP?

It is so different from their SST private jet project (that itself is very close to northrop one without the strut braced wing).


What are the overpressure and range/speed figures for this project?
 
there was some stuff in air&cosmos circa 2002. I'll have to check my collection, and use the job's scanner ;D
 
Ogami musashi said:
Is this the current lockheed QSP?

Not current, one of early ones.
 
There is no "current" QSP as the DARPA programme of that name finished some time ago - but there are similarities to the QSST designed for Supersonic Aerospace International, namely the "parasol-like" wing which arches over the engines. In the QSST, the engines are braced by the inverted tail, which also serves to extend the lift aft to reduce the sonic boom.
 

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Took me a while to track these down on an old computer, but here are some more images of that Lockheed QSP design, including the one used on the Aerospace America cover.
 

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CammNut, you made my day! Thanks a bunch!
 
Hi,

Anther QSP studied from flightglobal.


http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/2000/2000-1%20-%200998.pdf
 

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Jemiba said:
Do you mean this design ?
This picture was shown on more than one site in the net,
but IIRC in the FlugRevue, it was said, that it's a Sukhoi project ... ???

Mistery is solved - look at the vertical tail.
 

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Right you are Mr Flateric...
Released in mid-1999, around the time of the Paris media dinner where Micky Blackwell blew the gaff on low sonic boom research and about one and a half people in the room knew what he was talking about.

Or so they say...
 
Actually, this mystery is solved originally by Pometablava in his very old post http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,181.msg6630.html#msg6630
It was joint Lockheed/Gulfstream project, but Skunk logo says exactly who was leading actor.

More found here at AW&ST NBAA'99 Show News Online
http://www.aviationnow.com/shownews/99nbaa1/topsto04.htm

Gulfstream/Lockheed Martin Continue Supersonic Business Jet Research



Two Supersonic Business Jet programs were vying for attention at NBAA last year; one has dropped by the wayside, but Gulfstream, teamed with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, continues to study the concept.

Dassault earlier this year announced the only boom that held its attention was not the supersonic kind, but the one for its existing Falcons. The French company claimed there is no suitable powerplant for such a jet -- at least, not for its three-engined proposal.

If Dassault hasn't found it, Gulfstream thinks it must be because it didn't look hard enough. While executives in Savannah wonder if Dassault has really stopped its research or just wants to continue its program more secretively, they are themselves convinced that studies so far show that further studies are worthwhile. They believe an engine will not be a problem.

"All three engine companies are working with us, and are looking at derivatives of existing powerplants, materials and cycles," Gulfstream senior VP in charge of programs Pres Henne told Show News.

Now that the F-22 fighter has shown it can reach and sustain speeds of up to Mach 1.6 (not confirmed, but widely whispered in the industry) without use of an afterburner, it is evident that supercruise is achievable and sustainable in terms of technology and materials. This is the first requirement for an engine for the Supersonic Business Jet. In addition, NASA's High Speed Research program into a supersonic airliner has developed materials which can tolerate high temperatures for thousands of hours of operation, unlike fighter engines that see peak temperatures for only minutes at a time.

A Gulfstream SBJ is expected to be about the size of a G-V, and with two engines could feasibly be powered by engines in the class of Pratt's F119 or GE's F120 that will also propel the Joint Strike Fighter into supercruise territory.

"Engines are the key element," Henne said. Once a potential powerplant has been identified, then the issues of noise and emissions can be addressed.

But the next obstacle to the SBJ is the sonic boom. Today, civilian aircraft are prohibited from flying supersonically over the United States -- and many other parts of the world--because of the damage their shock wave causes on the ground. However, the Skunk Works has found that stealth technology developed to reduce radar signatures can also be applied to reducing the sonic boom aerodynamically.

At this point Gulfstream claims its lips are sealed. The model of the SBJ unveiled last year is no longer accurate, and while it still has two engines beneath its wings, the configuration has "changed" considerably. Just how, Gulfstream says, "is classified." Indeed, NASA said earlier it would restrict the release of data from its High Speed Research program to prevent non-U.S. companies (i.e. competitors in Europe) from using it.

But as Gulfstream President Bill Boisture told Show News, there is no point in building an SBJ just to prove it can be done. The key is the market.

Henne said Gulfstream typically builds airplanes on a business plan of 200 units. He added that is not an unrealistic number for an SBJ given that the Concord will probably be retired within the next 20 years and there is no replacement on the horizon to whisk executives from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

The Skunk Works has also enlisted the support of Executive Jet Aviation fractional ownership billionaire Warren Buffett to help lobby the U.S. government to endow NASA with funds to build a supersonic research vehicle which would, coincidentally, be just about the size of a GV. That effort has met with little success to date.

As Boisture pointed out, the SBJ will be very expensive, and its success could depend on the support of fractional ownership programs. These have already shown they can achieve the utilization rates necessary to achieve an adequate return on expensive assets, and that there is fractional demand for intercontinental travel as with the GIV-SP and the G-V.

Would an engine manufacturer develop an engine just for a 200-plane SBJ market? That could well depend on what else is going on at the Skunk Works as the military deepens its interest in stealthy Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles, and what level of importance the air force and navy place on supercruise.

"This really is way in the future--probably an end-of-next-decade airplane," said Henne. "We want to make sure we don't miss an opportunity."

By John Morris
NBAA 1999, Atlanta, Ga.

[picture] This is a model of the Gulfstream SBJ that was shown at 1998's NBAA. Maybe yes; maybe no.

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AW&ST NBAA'98 Convention News Online
http://www.aviationnow.com/shownews/nbaaday1/topsto2.htm
Boom Times Demand a Supersonic Bizjet, Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin Believe

It will be at least three years before Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin decide whether to offer a supersonic business jet, under the teaming agreement that the two companies announced at Farnborough.

The two companies started to discuss the project only a few months ago, according to Gulfstream Aerospace president and chief operating officer Jim Johnson. However, they have reached agreement on the outline of a four-phase plan.

First, the two companies plan a feasibility study -- Johnson will be "surprised if it takes less than a year" -- to look at what technology is available for the SBJ. The study will look at engines, materials, aerodynamics and environmental and operational issues.

The next stage -- "18 to 24 months, minimum" -- would encompass the design of a specific configuration, wind-tunnel testing and the definition of a product. In the third phase, the partners would assemble an industrial team and define the final stage: the development, certification and production program. This is why the two companies expect that it will be 8-10 years before an SBJ can be delivered.

The numbers discussed at Farnborough -- an eight-passenger aircraft with a 4000 nm range -- are notional, Johnson said, corresponding roughly to a supersonic Gulfstream IV. Likewise, the configuration shown at Farnborough (an arrow-wing, tail-aft design with twin engines under the wings) does not represent a real design, either from Gulfstream or Lockheed Martin.

Unlike Dassault, which is also studying a supersonic business jet, the two U.S. companies will be able to access the data from NASA's High-Speed Research (HSR) program, which has been underway since 1990 and is aimed at building the technology base for a new 300-passenger supersonic airliner. NASA has restricted the release of HSR data to prevent non-U.S. companies from using it.

NASA has decided to pump an extra $2 billion into HSR between now and 2006. Most of this money will pay for the design and construction of a complete ground-test engine, a 70,000 pound thrust monster with an exhaust noise suppressor as big as a motorhome, to address the critical issues of noise and upper-atmosphere pollution. Already, HSR has led to the development of engine materials which can tolerate high temperatures for thousands of hours of operation -- unlike a supersonic fighter engine, which sees peak temperatures for minutes at a time. The NASA program also includes research into heat-resistant, affordable composite materials and the design of a wing which is efficient at Mach 2 and offers high lift at low speeds.

One area of particular interest to Gulfstream and Lockheed is the sonic boom. "An airline can dedicate an aircraft to cross the Atlantic. A corporate operator can't do that, so a greater proportion of its flight will be over land," Johnson said.

The NASA program assumes that the jetliner will fly supersonically only over water or the most sparsely inhabited areas, but Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin will look at technology to reduce the sonic boom energy. "Low-boom" aerodynamic designs have been studied (and the Skunk Works may well have worked on them in the course of stealth research), but early NASA investigations under HSR did not show any conclusive advantages for them. Another approach is to design the aircraft so that it can cruise efficiently at lower supersonic speeds: an aircraft cruising at Mach 1.2 may not cause a boom on the ground, but is still half as fast again as most subsonics.

By Bill Sweetman ;)
 

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It's just belongs to here.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=DfcWAAAAEBAJ&printsec=drawing&zoom=4&dq=shock+suppression+aircraft&num=100#PPP1,M1
 

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Filed in 2000 LM patent for Passive aerodynamic sonic boom suppression for supersonic aircraft
http://www.google.com/patents?id=-1YMAAAAEBAJ&printsec=drawing&zoom=4&dq=shock+suppression+aircraft&num=100#PPP1,M1
patent got its sequel in 2003
http://www.google.com/patents?id=BoQUAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=shock+suppression+aircraft&num=100#PPP1,M1
 

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