Aeroplane design studies mach 2.2 and mach 3.0 supersonic airliners (academic years 1960 and 1962)

摘要

This report is divided into three parts. The first two of these describe the A-60,Mach 2.2 airliner and the A-62, Mach 3.0 airliner design studies respectively. Apartfrom the different cruise speeds these two aircraft were designed to meet the samebasic requirements and the third part of the report is a comparison of them.The Mach 2.2 design was based upon the use of a slender, integrated, delta layoutwith six turbojet engines buried in the rear fuselage. It was intended to carry up to 120passengers over transatlantic ranges. Although the chosen engine installation enableda compact aircraft to be designed it did introduce severe structural and installationdifficulties.A canard delta arrangement was proposed for the Mach 3.0 aircraft. Droopingof the wing tips for supersonic flight was found to confer important stability advantageswithout introducing an unacceptable weight penalty. The steel structure was designedaround the use of both corrugated reinforced and honeycomb sandwich skins, the formerbeing preferable. An interesting feature was the choice of a sealed, cryogenic, environmentalcontrol system. This was found to be very attractive but as it proved to besomewhat heavier than anticipated it is suggested that a good compromise could beobtained by using a more conventional system for subsonic flight phases.The major conclusion from the comparison between the two study aircraft wasthat in many respects there is very little to choose between them. However the Mach2.2 aircraft represents a more logical step from existing airliner designs and presentsfewer materials problems. As it is comparable economically it represents a betterchoice for a first generation supersonic design.