Impact of Configuration and Requirements on the Sonic Boom of a Quiet Supersonic Jet 2002-01-2930

Market forecasts predict a potentially large market for a Quiet Supersonic Business Jet provided that several technical hurdles are overcome prior to fielding such a vehicle. In order to be economically viable, the QSJ must be able to fly at supersonic speeds overland and operate from regional airports in addition to meeting government noise and emission requirements. As a result of these conflicting constraints on the design, the process of selecting a configuration for low sonic boom is a difficult one. Response Surface Methodology along with physics-based analysis tools were used to create an environment in which the sonic boom can be studied as a function of design and mission parameters. Ten disciplinary codes were linked with a sizing and synthesis code by using a commercial wrapper in order to calculate the required responses with the desired level of fidelity. Response Surface Equations were generated and used to create a dynamic environment in which engine, configuration, and mission variables are parametrically varied. This allows the user to evaluate the impact of the chosen variables on figures of merit in real time and to quickly conduct trade studies. Additionally, since these parameters are being considered concurrently, the interactions between the different disciplines have been captured by the analysis.