Passenger aircraft of the future - supersonic speed on biofuel. The future of aviation. Promising projects of airplanes and helicopters The future of supersonic passenger aviation

With a good source of energy, even a rock or an entire house will fly, but there are problems with this because there is little progress in the development of energy production and storage. I can also add that the American Knight Hawk stealth aircraft in general should not fly, but thanks to the on-board computer and electronics, which in real time monitors the critical flight parameters of the aircraft and does not allow and limits the transition of the aircraft to critical flight modes. Electronics did something that lifted a flying iron into the air. All these concepts are designed for new nanotechnology materials and a completely different type of engine. Who knows, maybe these techno fantasies will fly. The dream liner took off because it used carbon, carbon, plastic, carbon fiber, and fiberglass. Thanks to lithium-ion batteries, it has become possible to create a flying motorcycle or quadcopter. The main thing is a powerful and economical source of energy, and in aviation and spacecraft this is a huge problem

Source: © sites Even a rock or an entire house can fly with a good source of energy, but there are problems with this because progress in the development of energy production and storage is weak. I can also add that the American Knight Hawk stealth aircraft in general should not fly, but thanks to the on-board computer and electronics, which in real time monitors the critical flight parameters of the aircraft and does not allow and limits the transition of the aircraft to critical flight modes. Electronics did something that lifted a flying iron into the air. All these concepts are designed for new nanotechnology materials and a completely different type of engine. Who knows, maybe these techno fantasies will fly. The dream liner took off because it used carbon, carbon, plastic, carbon fiber, and fiberglass. Thanks to lithium-ion batteries, it has become possible to create a flying motorcycle or quadcopter. The main thing is a powerful and economical source of energy, and in aviation and spacecraft this is a huge problem

Source: © Fishki.net With a good source of energy, even a rock or an entire house will fly, but there are problems with this because progress in the development of energy production and storage is weak. I can also add that the American Knight Hawk stealth aircraft in general should not fly, but thanks to the on-board computer and electronics, which in real time monitors the critical flight parameters of the aircraft and does not allow and limits the transition of the aircraft to critical flight modes. Electronics did something that lifted a flying iron into the air. All these concepts are designed for new nanotechnology materials and a completely different type of engine. Who knows, maybe these techno fantasies will fly. The dream liner took off because it used carbon, carbon, plastic, carbon fiber, and fiberglass. Thanks to lithium-ion batteries, it has become possible to create a flying motorcycle or quadcopter. The main thing is a powerful and economical source of energy, and in aviation and spacecraft this is a huge problem

Russian President Vladimir Putin, watching the first flight of the new Tu-160 bomber in Kazan, invited aircraft manufacturers to think about creating a supersonic passenger aircraft. The iz.ru portal recalls the history of such aircraft, which were already in operation in the USSR, France and Great Britain.

The future belongs to aviation, to combat aviation, in order to ensure the country's defense capability, and to civil aviation too. But we, as we have just discussed, need to think about the civilian version of such aircraft. With such a huge territory as ours, the flight from Moscow to New York is not much longer than to Vladivostok. Therefore, I am sure that this will be in demand,” said the head of state, commenting on the resumption of serial production of the Tu-160 bomber at Kazansky
aircraft factory.

The first thing to note is that discussing the proposed proposal straightforwardly, in the option of creating a supersonic passenger aircraft directly on the basis of a multi-mode missile-carrying bomber with variable wing geometry, is a rather difficult task. This is not only an expensive solution due to unjustified civil aviation complexity of the design. The cruising speed of the Tu-160 is subsonic - 850 km/h, which, by the way, is 30–60 km/h lower than that of conventional modern wide-body aircraft, which casts doubt on even such a narrow hypothetical niche as a business jet for billionaires. Let us also recall that the cruising speed of both supersonic aircraft that were in commercial operation (Tu-144 and Concorde) exceeded Mach 2 and was about 2200 km/h.

“Of course, we are not talking about creating an aircraft based on the Tu-160. Several projects are currently being developed around the world supersonic business jets, some of them were studied with the participation of Russian research centers,” Vedomosti quotes a top manager of one of the aviation industry enterprises in this regard.

The issue of resuming the program of a fundamentally new supersonic passenger aircraft is an independent complex topic for discussion by specialists in the design and operation of aircraft. In the event that a sufficiently capacious market niche is found for the aircraft, which covers the costs of its creation and maintenance costs, the issue will move to the second stage, namely, the search in Russia for a design team capable of solving the problem.

On this moment The country is implementing two programs of fundamentally new aircraft (Superjet and MC-21), and the industry is also integrating into the Chinese project of the CR929 wide-body airliner. In fact, they are all built around Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and Irkut (Engineering Center named after A.S. Yakovlev), which, as part of the proposed model for reforming the United Aircraft Corporation, will be merged into a centralized company dealing with commercial aircraft.

In the meantime, let's try to remember how the fate of previous supersonic airliners turned out.

First second

The design of supersonic passenger aircraft in the world began in the late 1950s. The Soviet Union, concentrating its resources, made the car first - in just five years that passed from the moment the decision to begin development until the first flight, which took place “under the Christmas tree” on December 31, 1968.

The machine was extremely innovative for the domestic aviation industry (especially the civilian one); a lot of innovations were introduced into it. Here is the front one that retracts into the fuselage horizontal tail(used during takeoff and landing), and a raised nose that covered the glazing of the pilot's cabin at high speed, and interesting examples of on-board equipment.

The aircraft was actively promoted to foreign markets, but it was never released abroad. The plane crash in June 1973 during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show also gave the car bad publicity.

I had to look for a place for her only within the USSR. However, even with new engines (in the Tu-144D version), the machine, which according to the technical specifications was designed for non-stop flight Moscow-Khabarovsk, could carry it out only with a minimum load.

As a result, passenger service on this route never began, and two aircraft were transferred to the Moscow-Alma-Ata line. The cost of a ticket for the flight was 82 rubles. For comparison: a flight on a subsonic car on the same route cost 62 rubles, and for a similar price (83 rubles) you could fly by regular plane from Moscow to Irkutsk.

Passenger flights of the Tu-144 were conducted only from November 1977 to May 1978. Aeroflot tried with all its might to get rid of an expensive and capricious car that did not completely meet its requirements.

Taking advantage of the crash of an experimental Tu-144D aircraft that occurred near Yegoryevsk on May 23, 1978, regular supersonic passenger traffic in the USSR was stopped in favor of the Il-62. For some time they were used for urgent delivery of small cargo to the Far East. The Tu-144 program was finally closed in 1983 after the first domestic wide-body Il-86 was launched into mass production.

No agreement

The Tu-144 became the first supersonic passenger aircraft to take off, but the British-French Concorde, whose first flight took place in March 1969, entered commercial operation earlier. Since the development was a joint Franco-British one (Concorde translates as “consent”), the car was received by British Airways and Air France (seven units each).

Concorde performed its first flights in January 1976, these were the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio de Janeiro routes (with an intermediate stop in Dakar). Subsequently, the plane was used for flights to the USA: to Dulles Airport (in the suburbs of Washington), but mainly to New York. Planes also flew from London to Barbados, Toronto, Miami and Singapore, and from Paris to New York, Mexico City, and Caracas.

The planes were expensive and could not compete with the economical transatlantic “heavy-lift” aircraft, such as the Boeing 747. The Concorde actually crossed the Atlantic in half the time: 3.5 hours instead of 7. But it consumed twice as much fuel as the 747s (and three times as much as the newer ones). Boeing 777), at the same time, had four times less passenger capacity and required special maintenance, which, moreover, could not be saved due to the small number of aircraft in the series.

As a result, the key indicator - fuel consumption per 100 km of flight in terms of one passenger - reached 17 liters, with a similar indicator for wide-body competitors ranging from 2.5–3.5. Even the optimistic design figure for the total operating cost per passenger back in 1972 was estimated to be twice as high as that of the 747s of its day.

Spare parts were also produced in small series, almost to order, and incurred incredible overhead costs for the operator. At the same time, the plane did not carry side cargo (except for very small ones), which further reduced the opportunity to earn money on a transatlantic flight.

An expensive, stylish car, a symbol of a bygone era, was maintained only by high prices for tickets. The widely held opinion about unprofitability is incorrect: it brought operating profit because there were enough people with a lot of money to pay for a status flight. Cars on the New York–London main line departed with an average of 70–80 passengers on board out of 100 seats, and the flight paid for itself with only 35 tickets sold.

At the end of the operating period, the press wrote that British Airways extracted up to $30–50 million a year from its Concordes, Air France much less - up to $3 million. The main difficulties of the companies were that they spent enormous effort on maintaining a fleet that Moreover, they received it partially through government support. The British received two of their seven aircraft for the symbolic price of 1 pound, and the French took three for 1 franc each.

In addition, until the mid-1980s, governments heavily subsidized airlines, financing up to 80% of their operating costs. There were no prospects for expanding the business; the aircraft remained a narrow niche offer for very rich people, an element of prestigious consumption.

In the spring of 2003, both airlines made a joint decision to stop using the aircraft; the last flights took place in November of the same year. The 2000 disaster near Paris, where a French Concorde with 109 passengers and crew members crashed, dealt a strong blow to supersonic vehicles. The reasons also included the general crisis in the air transportation market after September 11, 2001 and the rising cost of service. In addition, the machines continued to fly in the technical form of the late 1970s, and the project to modernize their on-board equipment (in particular, cockpit electronics) required significant money and effort to organize the production of small batches of products.

As a result, airlines decided that they would make more profit from the business classes of conventional airliners.

Konstantin Bogdanov

Illustration copyright Airbus Image caption An example of what a strength set might look like in the future aircraft Airbus. Instead of the usual “skeleton” of frames, stringers and spars - a lightweight mesh of complex shape

Is it possible for the very concept of flight to change completely? It is possible that this will be the case in the future. Thanks to new materials and technologies, passenger drones may appear, and supersonic airliners will return to the skies. The BBC Russian service analyzed information about newest projects Airbus, Uber, Toyota and other companies to determine which direction aviation will take in the future.

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City sky

Nowadays, a fairly large layer of the atmosphere up to a kilometer high remains relatively free over cities. This space is used by special aviation, helicopters, as well as individual private or corporate aircraft.

But in this layer a new species is already beginning to develop air transport. It has many names - urban or personal aviation, the air transport system of the future, sky taxi, and so on. But its essence was formulated at the beginning of the 19th century by futurist artists: everyone will have the opportunity to use a small aircraft to fly short distances.

Illustration copyright Hulton Archive Image caption This is how the artist imagined the future in 1820. An individual aircraft was present in such pictures even then

What projects are aircraft designers working on around the world?

Engineers never gave up on this dream. But until now, the lack of durable and lightweight materials and imperfect electronics, without which many small devices cannot be launched, have been hampered. With the advent of high-strength, lightweight carbon fiber and the development of portable computers, everything changed.

The current stage of creating urban airmobile transport is somewhat reminiscent of the 1910s, the very beginning of the history of aircraft construction. Then the designers did not immediately find the optimal shape of the aircraft and boldly experimented, creating bizarre designs.

Now common task- make an aircraft for the urban environment - also allows you to build a wide variety of devices.

The Airbus corporation, for example, is developing three large projects at once - the manned single-seat Vahana, which, according to the corporation's plans, will be able to fly next year, and by 2021 will be ready for commercial flights. Two other projects: CityAirbus, an unmanned quadcopter taxi for several people, and Pop.Up, which the corporation is developing together with Italdesign. This is a single-seat unmanned module that can be used on a wheeled chassis for trips around the city, as well as suspended from a quadcopter for flights.

Airbus Pop.Up and CityAirbus use the quadcopter principle, and Vahana is a tiltrotor (that is, a device that takes off like a helicopter, and then turns its engines and then moves like an airplane).

Quadcopter and tiltrotor designs are now the main ones for passenger drones. Quadcopters are much more stable during flight. And tiltrotors allow you to reach higher speeds. But both schemes allow you to take off and land vertically. This is a key requirement for urban aviation, since conventional aircraft require a runway. This means that the construction of additional infrastructure for the city will be required.

Other notable projects include the Volocopter from the German company eVolo, which is a multicopter with 18 propellers. This is the most successful air taxi project so far; testing has already begun in Dubai in the fall of 2017. In June, Dubai's transport management company talks about this with eVolo.

Illustration copyright Lilium Image caption Lilium is propelled by 36 electric turbines installed in a row on planes and in two blocks at the front of the device

Another project from Germany - Lilium - is interesting due to its unusual layout. This is an electric tiltrotor with 36 small turbines installed in two blocks along the wing, and with two more blocks in the front of the device. The company has already begun test flights in unmanned mode.

Japanese automaker Toyota is investing in the Cartivator project.

And the online taxi service Uber is also developing its own unmanned system, in this project it is working closely with NASA to develop technologies and software service in cities with high population density.

Illustration copyright Ethan Miller/Getty Images Image caption The EHang 184 passenger drone, created by the Chinese company Beijing Yi-Hang Creation Science & Technology Co., Ltd. in 2016

Among aviation experts There are many supporters of unmanned urban passenger transportation and skeptics.

Among the latter is Avia.ru editor-in-chief Roman Gusarov. The main problem, in his opinion, is the low power of electric motors and batteries. And efficient passenger drones are unlikely to appear in the foreseeable future, despite the fact that a lot of money is being invested in their development.

“The technologies are still quite crude and the systems created using them are subject to technical failures,” Denis Fedutinov, editor-in-chief of the uav.ru portal, noted in an interview with the BBC.

According to him, such projects may simply be a nice publicity stunt and an opportunity to show that the company is engaged in cutting-edge research. He also does not rule out that, against the background of enthusiastic publications in the press, many startups may arise that, having found investor money, will not be able to create a flying passenger drone.

Executive Director of Infomost Consulting (a company engaged in consulting in the field of transport) Boris Rybak believes that so far the biggest problem in this area is fear. People will be afraid to trust their lives to an aircraft without a pilot for a long time.

“When the first self-propelled gasoline carts appeared, they rode next to the horses with smoke, smoke and roar, and people ran away. But this is normal, it was scary then, and it’s scary now,” Rybak said.

Between the houseamiand birdsami

Currently, NASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration are working on the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) program. It is within the framework of this program that Uber is collaborating with NASA and the FAA.

The development of technologies in this area is far ahead of the development of rules for their regulation. The American program began to be developed in 2015, but the “road map” for its development has not yet even indicated the deadline for creating rules for flights in densely populated urban areas.

Illustration copyright Italdesign Image caption The Pop.Up passenger capsule can be used on a wheeled chassis or attached to a quadcopter

This refers to drone flights for mail delivery and news video recording. But the program says nothing at all about the transportation of passengers.

Judging by data from presentations studied by the BBC Russian Service, in the future, flights of passenger drones in cities will be regulated through the formation of routes in air corridors. The same principle applies in modern civil aviation. At the same time, the drones will actively interact with each other and monitor air space around to avoid collisions with other drones and other objects in the air (such as birds).

However, as Boris Rybak believes, a system built on the principle of free flight, where routes would be built by computers taking into account the location of all aircraft in the air, would be much more effective.

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Will Russia remain on the sidelines?

In Russia, authorities are also trying to take cautious steps to regulate drone flights in urban environments. Thus, Rostelecom has been interested in drones for a long time. It is a contractor for the Russian Space Systems company, which in November 2015 won the Roscosmos competition for 723 million rubles ($12.3 million) to create the infrastructure of the Federal Network Operator.

Illustration copyright Tom Cooper/Getty Images Image caption Another supersonic business jet project - XB-1 from the American company Boom Technology

This infrastructure will have to provide surveillance of transport and unmanned vehicles (including aircraft), ground and water manned and unmanned transport, by rail, explained a representative of Rostelecom. The operator is creating a prototype of infrastructure that will control the movement of vehicles, primarily drones, and is ready to spend about 100 million rubles ($1.7 million) on subcontractors.

Deputy head of the Moscow Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship Andrei Tikhonov told the BBC that the Russian capital does not yet have the conditions for the appearance of passenger drones.

"Firstly, it is not fully developed normative base for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles. Secondly, the Moscow infrastructure is not yet adapted for the mass transportation of goods and passengers on unmanned vehicles. Thirdly, most vehicles intended for transporting people and large loads are still at the testing stage and must receive the appropriate documentation to operate in urban environments. Again, questions of compulsory passenger insurance and many others arise,” he explained.

True, according to him, these problems do not so much stop the city authorities as force them to look for ways to solve them.

Faster than sound

Another area that many aircraft manufacturing corporations are working on is supersonic passenger transportation.

This idea is not new at all. November 22 marks the 40th anniversary of the start of regular commercial flights between New York, Paris and London on Concorde aircraft. In the 1970s, the idea of supersonic transportation was implemented by British Airways together with Air France, as well as Aeroflot on the Tu-144. But in practice it turned out that the technologies of that time were not suitable for civil aviation.

As a result, the Soviet project was canceled after seven months of operation, and the British-French one after 27 years.

Illustration copyright Evening Standard Image caption Concorde, like the Tu-144, was ahead of its time, but showed how difficult it is to make a supersonic passenger plane

Finance is usually cited as the main reason why the Concorde and Tu-144 projects were cancelled. These planes were expensive.

The engines of such devices consume much more fuel. For such aircraft it was necessary to create its own infrastructure. The Tu-144, for example, used its own type of aviation fuel, which was much more complex in composition; it required special maintenance, which was more thorough and expensive. For this aircraft it was even necessary to maintain separate ramps.

Another serious problem, in addition to the complexity and cost of maintenance, was noise. During flight at supersonic speed, a strong air seal occurs at all leading edges of the aircraft elements, which generates a shock wave. It reaches behind the plane in the form of a huge cone, and when it reaches the ground, the person through whom it passes hears a deafening sound, like an explosion. It is because of this that Concorde flights over US territory at supersonic speed were prohibited.

And it is noise that designers are now primarily trying to combat.

After the cessation of Concorde flights, attempts to build a new, more efficient supersonic passenger aircraft did not stop. And with the advent of new technologies in the field of materials, engine building and aerodynamics, people began to talk about them more and more often.

Several large projects in the field of supersonic civil aviation are being developed around the world. Basically, these are business jets. That is, designers initially try to target that market segment where the cost of tickets and service plays a lesser role than in route transportation.

Illustration copyright Aerion Image caption Aerion is developing the AS2 aircraft in partnership with Airbus

NASA, together with Lockheed Martin Corporation, is developing a supersonic aircraft, trying, first of all, to solve the problem of the sound barrier. QueSST technology involves searching for a special aerodynamic shape of the aircraft, which would “smear” the hard sound barrier, making it blurry and less noisy. Currently, NASA has already developed the appearance of the aircraft, and its flight tests may begin in 2021.

Another notable project is AS2, which is being developed by Aerion in partnership with Airbus.

Airbus is also working on the Concord 2.0 project. This aircraft is planned to be equipped with three types of engines - a rocket in the tail section and two conventional jet engines, with the help of which the aircraft will be able to take off almost vertically, as well as one ramjet, which will already accelerate the aircraft to a speed of Mach 4.5.

True, Airbus deals with such projects quite carefully.

“Airbus continues to research in the field of supersonic/hypersonic technologies, we are also studying the market to understand whether these types of projects will be viable and feasible,” Airbus said in an official commentary to the BBC Russian Service. “We do not see a market for such aircraft at the moment and in the foreseeable future due to the high costs of such systems, this may change with the advent of new technologies, or with changes in the economic or social situation. In general, this is still an area of study rather than a priority."

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It is really difficult to predict whether there will be a demand for such aircraft. Boris Rybak notes that information technologies have also developed in parallel with aviation, and now a businessman who needs to quickly resolve an issue on the other side of the Atlantic can often do this not in person, but via the Internet.

“It’s six hours to fly business class or a business jet from London to New York. Otherwise, technically you’ll spend four, well, three and forty. Is this [game] worth the price?” - said Rybak regarding supersonic flights.

Based on the experience of the Tu-144

However, other Russian aviation experts think differently. Supersonic aircraft will be able to take their place in the market, says the rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute, Mikhail Pogosyan, the former head of the United Aircraft Corporation.

“A supersonic aircraft makes it possible to reach a qualitatively different level; it allows you to save global time - a day. Market forecasts indicate that the introduction of this kind of technology and this kind of project will be associated with the cost of such a flight. If such a cost is acceptable and will not times different from the cost of a flight on a subsonic aircraft, then I assure you that there is a market,” he told the BBC Russian Service.

Pogosyan spoke at the Aerospace Science Week forum at the Moscow Aviation Institute, where he, in particular, spoke about the prospects for creating supersonic aircraft with the participation of Russian specialists. Russian enterprises (TsAGI, MAI, UAC) are participating in the large European research program Horizon 2020, one of the directions of which is the development of a supersonic passenger aircraft.

Poghosyan listed the main properties of such an aircraft - a low level of sonic boom (otherwise the aircraft will not be able to fly over populated areas), a variable cycle engine (it needs to work well at subsonic and supersonic speeds), new heat-resistant materials (at supersonic speeds the aircraft gets very hot), artificial intelligence, as well as the fact that such an aircraft can be controlled by one pilot.

At the same time, the rector of MAI is convinced that the supersonic aircraft project can only be created at the international level.

Illustration copyright Boris Korzin/TASS Image caption According to Sergei Chernyshev, Russia has preserved the school of creating supersonic passenger aircraft

The head of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI) Sergei Chernyshev said at the forum that Russian specialists are participating in three international projects in the field of supersonic passenger aviation - Hisac, Hexafly and Rumble. All three projects do not aim to create a final commercial product. Their the main task- explore the properties of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles. According to him, now aircraft manufacturers are only creating the concept of such an aircraft.

In an interview with the BBC, Sergei Chernyshev said that strong point Russian aircraft manufacturers have experience in creating supersonic aircraft and their operation. According to him, this is a strong aerodynamic school, extensive experience in testing, including in extreme conditions. Russia also has a “traditionally strong school of materials scientists,” he added.

“My subjective forecast: on the horizon of 2030-35 a [business jet] will appear. Academician Pogosyan believes that between 2020 and 2030. He gave them ten years. This is true, but still closer to 2030,” - said Sergei Chernyshev.

"Ordinary" unusual liners

The main task of aircraft designers today is to achieve an increase in the fuel efficiency of the aircraft, while reducing harmful emissions and noise. The second task is to develop new control systems where the computer will perform more and more tasks.

Nowadays, no one will be surprised by the fly-by-wire control system of an aircraft, when signals from the control stick or steering wheel, pedals and other organs are transmitted to the rudders and other mechanization elements in the form of electrical signals. Such a system allows the on-board computer to control the pilot’s actions, making adjustments and correcting errors. However, this system is already yesterday.

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As Kirill Budaev, vice-president of the Irkut corporation for marketing and sales, told the BBC, the Russian company is working on a system where only one pilot will fly the plane, and the functions of the second during takeoff and landing will be performed by a specially trained senior flight attendant. During an airplane flight at flight level, one pilot is quite enough, Irkut believes.

According to the laws of nature

Another major innovation that has emerged in the last decade is composite materials. The development of lightweight and durable plastic can be compared to the use of aluminum in post-production. military aviation. This material, along with the advent of efficient turbojet engines, changed the face of aircraft. Now exactly the same revolution is happening with composites, which are gradually displacing metal from aircraft structures.

Aircraft design is increasingly using 3D printing, which allows it to create more complex shapes with high precision. And strive to reduce fuel consumption.

For example, Airbus and Boeing use the latest LEAP family engines manufactured by CFM International. The injectors in these engines are 3D printed. And this increased fuel efficiency by 15%.

Moreover, now aviation industry began to actively master bionic design.

Bionics is an applied science that studies the possibilities of practical application in various technical devices of principles and structures that appeared in nature due to evolution.

Illustration copyright Airbus Image caption Bracket designed using bionic technology

Here's a simple example - the picture above shows a bracket similar to the one used on an Airbus aircraft. Pay attention to its shape - usually such an element is a solid piece of triangular metal. However, by calculating on a computer the forces that would be applied to its various parts, the engineers figured out which parts could be removed and which could be modified in such a way as to not only lighten, but also strengthen such a component.

Much more complex work was carried out by a group of scientists led by Professor Niels Aage of the Technical University of Denmark. In October 2017, they published a report in the journal Nature in which they described how they calculated the force set of a Boeing 777 airliner wing on the French Curie supercomputer - a complex structure of rather thin jumpers and struts.

As a result, according to the researchers, the weight of the aircraft's two wings could be reduced by 2-5% without losing strength. Considering that both wings weigh a combined 20 tons, this would result in savings of up to 1 ton, which corresponds to an estimated reduction in fuel consumption of 40-200 tons per year. But this is already significant, isn’t it?

At the same time, bionic design in the future, as aircraft manufacturing corporations believe, will be used more and more. The plane in the first illustration to this text is just a sketch by Airbus engineers, but it already shows on what principle the powertrain of future aircraft will be created.

Electricity

The engine is the most important and most expensive part of the aircraft. And it is he who determines the configuration of any aircraft. Currently, most aircraft engines are either natural gas or internal combustion, gasoline or diesel. Only a very small part of them runs on electricity.

According to Boris Rybak, all decades of existence jet aviation There was no development of fundamentally new aircraft engines. He sees this as a manifestation of the lobby of oil corporations. Whether this is true or not, during the entire post-war period an effective engine that did not burn hydrocarbon fuel never appeared. Although even atomic ones were tested.

The attitude towards electricity in the global aviation industry is currently changing dramatically. The concept of a “More Electric Aircraft” has emerged in global aviation. It implies greater electrification of the units and mechanisms of the device compared to modern ones.

In Russia, technology within the framework of this concept is carried out by the Technodinamika holding, part of Rostec. The company is developing electric reverse drives for the future Russian PD-14 engine, drives fuel system, retracting and releasing the landing gear.

"In the long term, we are, of course, looking at large commercial aircraft projects. And in these big planes“We will most likely use a hybrid propulsion system before switching to full electric propulsion,” Airbus said in a commentary. - The fact is that the power-to-weight ratio in modern batteries is still very far from what we need. But we are preparing for a future where this is possible."

Aviation technology in the latest concepts regularly demonstrates advanced technological developments in various aspects of operation. This is not just about modernization modern models, but also a broader view of the future of the segment. Designers are focusing on the potential for development based on technologies that were considered innovative until recently. Of course, not all projects by which the aircraft of the future can be assessed will actually be implemented, but from many developments it is quite possible to get an overall idea of the trends in aviation development.

New ideas in passenger aircraft construction

Among the most realistic developments in the near future we can note the Boeing 777X. Fundamentally innovative and striking innovations are not expected, but the designers of this model promise a serious redesign of the controls and the shape of the wings. For example, the 777X will combine ailerons and flaps to minimize overall structural weight. As for the special design of the wings, it will be sectional - the length of each will be 3.5 m, and the developers will also provide the possibility of vertical lifting for parking during taxiing. Like many other passenger aircraft of the future, this airliner is planned to be converted to more efficient fuel sources. The power plant will be provided by a twin-engine complex capable of being controlled with a wingspan of about 72 m. Presumably, the aircraft will enter service in 2020.

The Japanese development of Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) is also interesting. This vessel is a jet passenger airliner for 76 seats. In addition, in 2020, the creators plan to release several modifications, one of which will be 90-seater. According to many experts, Mitsubishi will offer more safe planes future than the Brazilian company Embraer and versions of the famous Superjet. This will be achieved through an updated fuselage design and more functional on-board systems.

Trends in military aviation

Military equipment traditionally displays more technologically advanced and functionally developed models. This partly applies to aviation. It's worth starting with communications support - massive antennas, sensors and radars may appear on the surfaces of future combat aircraft, which will allow them to capture and transmit electromagnetic waves. In practice, this will provide the ability to accurately “scan” objects within a 360 degree radius, regardless of weather conditions. Nanotechnologies will also bring new opportunities. In particular, some developments will provide coatings with a thermometer function, which will alert them to damage. Already this decade, future military aircraft will most likely also receive lasers. Moreover, their use will be narrowly oriented. The first concepts are planned to be used as a means of destroying enemy missiles and air defense sensors. Microwave weapons will be used to destroy electronic devices. Special engines will be provided both to equip aircraft with lasers and for electromagnetic installations. The appearance of new bombers is also expected, but in this area the principles of destruction will remain the same, and changes will occur only in terms of design optimization.

Supersonic aircraft

This class remains one of the most promising and rich. For example, NASA plans to release a supersonic QueSST by 2020, which will be almost silent. This is an important feature, since high noise levels are to this day the main reason for the ban on supersonic aircraft for transporting passengers. With the help of new technologies, NASA plans to eliminate noise pollution during the transition to ultra-high speed. An interesting project is also supported by Virgin Galactic. This is a startup called Boom, which, according to some calculations, can reduce flight time over the Atlantic by 2.5 times compared to modern supersonic models. The fighter aircraft of the future, which in the sixth generation will go to supersonic speed, are also not being ignored. These are distant plans for now, but it is possible that similar developments will appear on the RQ-4 and Boeing F-X UAV platforms. According to some reports, the latest modifications will be able to achieve hypersonic speeds of 6 thousand km/h. But, again, operation of the sixth generation models will begin no earlier than 2050.

Flying cars

Cinematic images of flying personal cars seem like distant fantasy even today. Nevertheless, the Terrafugia company expects, if not to implement this concept in the near future, then to bring it closer. Not so long ago, the company's developers already presented a private car aircraft, but with one caveat - it was more of an airplane, since it required a runway with a flat surface 500 m long. And this is not to mention the difficulties of control, which only a professional could cope with pilot. However, in new versions, future aircraft from Terrafugia should at least get rid of the need to use runway. This achievement has already been demonstrated by the latest modification TF-X, capable of reaching about 350 km/h. The flight range is 805 km.

Hybrid aircraft

The ideas of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient power have long been applied in traditional cars. It is quite logical that aircraft designers began to master them. In particular, engineers from Boeing have created a conceptual model of SUGAR, which should provide airlines with up to 70% savings compared to devices running on conventional fuel. Such a high percentage of energy savings was made possible thanks to electric batteries. While waiting for passengers, SUGAR will be simultaneously filled with traditional fuel and charged from the airport's energy terminal. Conventional fuel materials are intended only for take-off, and the flight itself is carried out by electric motors. And this is not the only development of this type. Today, future aircraft designs are designed with the possibility of a complete transition to electricity. The most ambitious ideas also concern accumulation solar energy, which can make energy supply 100% free.

Innovation in the private sector

Very original developments are also appearing on the private jet market. Thus, the Bombardier Global 8000 model is a business jet designed for 8 seats. It promises to set a record for flying without refueling over a distance of about 15,000 km. The speed will be 950 km/h. Also interesting is the seemingly unusual SkiGull model, which is called an amphibious aircraft. The name is due to the ability of the device to land on the water surface. This new development, but in the near future it will become available to everyone who wants to purchase it. Icon specialists also offer combined aircraft of the future for private users. The A5 model represents a two-seat seaplane option that not only allows you to land and take off from the surface of the water, but is also capable of recovering from a spin and, if necessary, ejecting the pilot with a parachute.

Space air travel

The already mentioned company Virgin Galactic is also engaged in tourism in the form of space flights. But in the future, as its representatives note, technology will allow ordinary aircraft users to perform suborbital flights from one point on the planet to another. That is, there is no talk of flights to the far corners of space, but entering orbit by overcoming the atmospheric layer is possible. Today, an example of the implementation of this idea is the devices of the Space Ship Two family. Such aircraft of the future will be able to rise to a height of more than 15 km and deliver passengers to different parts of the Earth with minimal time.

The future of the Russian aircraft industry

The domestic aircraft industry was in a state of crisis for a long time and only last years serious attempts were made to radically change the situation. The prospects for the development of the Russian segment of the industry are associated with two fairly successful developments. Firstly, this is the Sukhoi Superjet SSJ 100, which shows decent technical and operational performance, opening up new opportunities for further advancement of the project. For example, in 2019 it is planned to release a modification with 120 seats. Secondly, Russia’s future aircraft based on the MS-21 also inspire great hope for the development of the complex. This platform should be released in 2020. This is a short-medium-haul airliner, the power plant of which is created entirely using domestic components.

Conclusion

Perhaps the key trend in the development of the industry can be called the elimination of operational restrictions for aircraft of various classes. Moreover, this applies not only to technical indicators, but also to niche barriers. For example, the famous line “airplanes come first” ceases to be relevant. A fighter from the future, a cargo liner, or a passenger ship may well get the appearance of a helicopter. In some segments, promising helicopter models are successfully replacing traditional aircraft. It is possible that this trend will continue in the future. In particular, the Bell 525 family promises to be the first helicopters with a fly-by-wire control system, which minimizes the workload on the crew. And Airbus's Helicopters concepts are set to set records in terms of payload capacity. According to the manufacturer, by 2020 such models will be able to transport loads of up to 10 tons.

When might a new supersonic passenger plane take to the skies? Business jet based on the Tu-160 bomber: real? How to silently break the sound barrier?

The Tu-160 is the largest and most powerful supersonic aircraft and variable-wing geometry aircraft in the history of military aviation. Among the pilots he received the nickname "White Swan". Photo: AP

Do supersonic passenger cars have a future? - I asked the outstanding Russian aircraft designer Genrikh Novozhilov not long ago.

Of course have. At least a supersonic business aircraft will definitely appear,” answered Genrikh Vasilievich. - I have had the opportunity to talk with American businessmen more than once. They clearly stated: “If such an aircraft appeared, Mr. Novozhilov, then no matter how expensive it was, they would instantly buy it from you.” Speed, altitude and range are three factors that are always relevant.

Yes, they are relevant. The dream of any businessman: to fly across the ocean in the morning, conclude a major deal, and return home in the evening. Modern airplanes fly no faster than 900 km/h. A supersonic business jet will have a cruising speed of about 1900 km per hour. What prospects for the business world!

That is why neither Russia, nor America, nor Europe have ever abandoned attempts to create a new supersonic passenger car. But the history of those that have already flown - the Soviet Tu-144 and the Anglo-French Concorde - has taught us a lot.

This December it will be half a century since the Tu-144 made its first flight. And a year later, the liner showed exactly what it was capable of: it broke the sound barrier. He picked up a speed of 2.5 thousand km/h at an altitude of 11 km. This event went down in history. There are still no analogues of passenger aircraft in the world that are capable of repeating such a maneuver.

The One Hundred and Forty Four opened a fundamentally new page in the global aircraft industry. They say that at one of the meetings at the CPSU Central Committee, designer Andrei Tupolev reported to Khrushchev: the car is turning out to be quite voracious. But he just waved his hand: your job is to wipe the noses of the capitalists, but we have enough kerosene...

The nose was wiped. They filled themselves with kerosene.

However, the European competitor, which took off later, was also not distinguished by its efficiency. Thus, in 1978, nine Concordes brought their companies about $60 million in losses. And only government subsidies saved the situation. Nevertheless, the “Anglo-French” flew until November 2003. But the Tu-144 was written off much earlier. Why?

First of all, Khrushchev’s optimism did not come true: an energy crisis broke out in the world and kerosene prices went up. The supersonic first-born was immediately dubbed “a boa constrictor around Aeroflot’s neck.” The enormous fuel consumption also knocked out the designed flight range: the Tu-144 did not reach either Khabarovsk or Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Only from Moscow to Alma-Ata.

And if only that. A 200-ton “iron”, cruising over densely populated areas at supersonic speed, literally blew up the entire space along the route. Complaints poured in: cow milk yields fell, chickens stopped laying eggs, acid rain crushed them... Today you can’t say for sure where the truth is and where the lies are. But the fact remains: Concorde flew only over the ocean.

Finally, the most important thing is disasters. One - in June 1973 at the air show in Paris Le Bourget, as they say, in full view of the whole planet: the crew of test pilot Kozlov wanted to demonstrate the capabilities of the Soviet airliner... The other - five years later. Then a test flight was carried out with engines of a new series: they were just supposed to pull the plane to the required range.

Concorde also did not escape tragedy: the plane crashed in July 2000 while taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport. Ironically, it crashed almost where the Tu-144 once did. 109 people on board and four on the ground were killed. Regular passenger services resumed only a year later. But a series of incidents followed, and this supersonic aircraft was also put to rest.

On December 31, 1968, the first flight of the Tu-144 took place, two months earlier than the Concorde. And on June 5, 1969, at an altitude of 11,000 meters, our plane was the first in the world to break the sound barrier. Photo: Sergey Mikheev/ RG

Today, at a new stage in technology development, scientists need to find a balance between contradictory factors: good aerodynamics of a new supersonic aircraft, low fuel consumption, as well as strict restrictions on noise and sonic boom.

How realistic is it to create a new passenger supersonic aircraft based on the Tu-160 bomber? From a purely engineering point of view, it’s quite possible, experts say. And in history there are examples when military aircraft successfully “removed their shoulder straps” and flew “to civilian life”: for example, the Tu-104 was created on the basis long-range bomber Tu-16, and Tu-114 - the Tu-95 bomber. In both cases, it was necessary to redo the fuselage - change the wing layout, expand the diameter. In fact, these were new aircraft, and quite successful ones. By the way, an interesting detail: when the Tu-114 first flew to New York, there was neither a ramp nor a tractor suitable for the height at the stunned airport...

At a minimum, similar work will be required for the conversion of the Tu-160. However, how cost effective will this solution be? Everything needs to be carefully assessed.

How many such planes do you need? Who will fly them and where? How commercially available will they be for passengers? How soon will the development costs pay off?.. Tickets on the same Tu-144 cost 1.5 times more than usual, but even such a high cost did not cover operating costs.

Meanwhile, according to experts, the first Russian supersonic administrative aircraft (business jet) can be designed in seven to eight years if the engine reserves are available. Such an aircraft can accommodate up to 50 people. Total demand in the domestic market is projected at 20-30 cars at a price of 100-120 million dollars.

A new generation of serial supersonic passenger aircraft may appear around 2030

Designers on both sides of the ocean are working on supersonic business jet projects. Everyone is looking for new layout solutions. Some offer an atypical tail, some a completely unusual wing, some a fuselage with a curved central axis...

TsAGI specialists are developing the SDS/SPS project ("supersonic business aircraft / supersonic passenger aircraft"): according to the plan, it will be able to perform transatlantic flights over a distance of up to 8600 km with a cruising speed of at least 1900 km/h. Moreover, the cabin will be transformable - from 80-seat to 20-seat VIP class.

And last summer at the air show in Zhukovsky, one of the most interesting was a model of a high-speed civil aircraft created by TsAGI scientists as part of the international project HEXAFLY-INT. This aircraft must fly at a speed of more than 7-8 thousand km/h, corresponding to Mach numbers 7 or 8.

But for a high-speed civil aircraft to become a reality, a huge range of problems must be solved. They are associated with materials, hydrogen power plant, its integration with the airframe and obtaining high aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft itself.

And what is absolutely certain: design features the designed winged aircraft will be clearly non-standard.

Competently

Sergey Chernyshev, CEO TsAGI, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

The level of sonic boom (a sharp pressure drop in the shock wave) from the Tu-144 was 100-130 pascals. But modern research has shown that it can be increased to 15-20. Moreover, reduce the volume of the sonic boom to 65 decibels, which is equivalent to noise big city. There are still no official standards in the world on the permissible level of sonic boom. And most likely it will be determined no earlier than 2022.

We have already proposed the appearance of a demonstrator of a supersonic civil aircraft of the future. The sample must demonstrate the ability to reduce sonic boom in supersonic cruise flight and noise in the airport area. Several options are being considered: an aircraft for 12-16 passengers, also for 60-80. There is an option for a very small business aircraft - for 6-8 passengers. These are different weights. In one case, the car will weigh approximately 50 tons, and in another - 100-120, etc. But we start with the first of the designated supersonic aircraft.

According to various estimates, today there is already an unrealized market need for fast flights for business people on airplanes with a passenger capacity of 12-16 people. And, of course, the car must fly a distance of at least 7-8 thousand kilometers along transatlantic routes. The cruising speed will be Mach 1.8-2, that is, approximately twice the speed of sound. This speed is a technological barrier to the use of conventional aluminum materials in airframe construction. Therefore, the dream of scientists is to make an airplane entirely from temperature-controlled composites. And there are good developments.

Clear requirements for the aircraft must be determined by the launch customer, and then at the stages of preliminary design and development work, some changes in the original appearance of the aircraft obtained at the preliminary design stage are possible. But the sound principles for reducing sonic boom will remain unchanged.

The short passenger operation of the supersonic Tu-144 was limited to flights from Moscow to Alma-Ata. Photo: Boris Korzin/ TASS Photo Chronicle

I think we are 10-15 years away from a flying prototype. In the near future, according to our plans, a flying demonstrator should appear, the appearance of which is being worked out. Its main task is to demonstrate the basic technologies for creating a supersonic aircraft with low level sonic boom. This is a necessary stage of work. A new generation of serial supersonic aircraft may appear on the horizon in 2030.

Oleg Smirnov, Honored Pilot of the USSR, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Commission of the Public Council of Rostransnadzor:

Make a passenger supersonic aircraft based on the Tu-160? For our engineers - absolutely real. No problem. Moreover, this car is very good, with remarkable aerodynamic qualities, a good wing and fuselage. However, today any passenger aircraft must first of all meet international airworthiness and technical requirements. The discrepancies, if you compare a bomber and a passenger plane, are more than 50 percent. For example, when some people say that when remodeling it is necessary to “inflate the fuselage,” you need to understand: the Tu-160 itself weighs more than 100 tons. “Inflate” means adding weight. This means increasing fuel consumption, reducing speed and altitude, and making the aircraft absolutely unattractive for any airline in terms of its operating costs.

To create a supersonic aircraft for business aviation, we need new avionics, new aircraft engines, new materials, new types of fuel. On the Tu-144, kerosene, as they say, flowed like a river. Today this is impossible. And most importantly, there must be mass demand for such an aircraft. One or two cars ordered from millionaires will not solve the financial problem. Airlines will have to lease it and “work off” the cost. On whom? Naturally, on the passengers. From an economic point of view, the project will be a failure.

Sergey Melnichenko, General Director of ICAA "Flight Safety":

Over the almost 35 years that have passed since the start of serial production of the Tu-160, technology has advanced, and this will have to be taken into account when thoroughly modernizing the existing aircraft. Aircraft makers say it is much easier and cheaper to build a new aircraft according to a new concept than to rebuild an old one.

Another question: if the Tu-160 is rebuilt specifically as a business jet, will Arab sheikhs still be interested in it? However, there are a few "buts". The aircraft will need to obtain an international certificate (and the European Union and the USA are behind its issuance), which is very problematic. In addition, we will need new efficient engines, which we do not have. Those that are available do not consume fuel, but drink.

If the plane is converted to carry economy passengers (which is unlikely), then the question is - where to fly and who to carry? Last year we only just approached the figure of 100 million passengers carried. In the USSR these figures were much higher. The number of airfields has decreased several times. Not everyone who would like to fly to the European part of the country from Kamchatka and Primorye can afford it. Tickets for a “fuel-guzzling plane” will be more expensive than for Boeings and Airbuses.

If the aircraft is planned to be rebuilt purely to suit the interests of the managers large companies, then this is most likely what will happen. But then this question concerns them purely, and not the Russian economy and people. Although even in this case it is difficult to imagine that flights will be carried out only to Siberia or the Far East. Problem with area noise. And if the updated plane is not allowed to fly to Sardinia, then who needs it?

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