Aerion Corporation was an American

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

based in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

. It was founded by Robert Bass of

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

. From 2004 until 2021, the company was developing a 10-passenger supersonic jet to cut

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, bal ...

s by three hours, using "boomless cruise" technology to negate the sonic boom. It was expected to be the first supersonic aircraft without an

afterburner An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and combat ...

to lower emissions, and the first to run on biofuels. Aerion abruptly announced on May 21, 2021, that the company would be shutting down due to inability to raise needed capital to proceed.

History

Aerion Corporation was founded in 2003 by Texas billionaire Robert Bass as a startup working to commercialize supersonic aviation technology. The company began development on

supersonic business jet A supersonic business jet (SSBJ) is a business jet travelling above the speed of sound: a supersonic aircraft. Some manufacturers are designing or have been designing SSBJs, but none are currently available. Usually intended to transport about t ...

s in 2004. Increased demand from a variety of aircraft manufacturers for Aerion’s natural laminar flow (NLF) expertise drove the company to launch Aerion Technologies Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary, in May 2011. Aerion stated that the same proprietary technologies and design tools that enable a practical supersonic business jet also have subsonic and transonic applications. During the previous 10 years, Aerion had developed extensive NLF test data and methods for optimizing its application to aircraft design, as well as assuring practical manufacturing and operational use. Aerion Technologies’ NLF technology and design tools may also help airframe builders improve speed and efficiency limits for next-generation civil and military aircraft. In May 2015, Ernest Edwards, formerly president of Embraer Executive Jets, was appointed Aerion’s chief commercial officer, while previous

Gulfstream G650 The Gulfstream G650, G700, and G800 are large Business jet, business jets produced by the American company Gulfstream Aerospace.Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

's Aerospace Systems sector, was appointed President and COO. A year later, Vice also replaced Robert Bass as Chairman of the Board upon the announcement of a partnership between

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

and Aerion. In April 2020, the company announced the construction of a $375 million production facility at the Melbourne Orlando International Airport and the relocation of its headquarters to the Aerion Park campus, with the hopes of the first commercial delivery of planes by 2027. Aerion began development on

carbon neutral Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and Greenhouse gas removal, removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon diox ...

capabilities for its AS2 jet through direct air capture in a 2020 deal with Carbon Engineering. In July 2020, Aerion partnered with Jetex to establish travel arrangements for AS2 passengers. On May 21, 2021, at the time of its collapse, the company had 93 orders for the AS2 aircraft at a price of US$120 million, a backlog of $11.2 billion. Aerion had only a fraction of the US$4 billion it estimated would be needed to complete

certification Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...

and commence production. The company said the customer deposits would be returned. In June 2021, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun explained why it stopped supporting Aerion, stating that he asked, "is it going to be big enough and meaningful enough to Boeing? And maybe not just in terms of share of market and service market, but also in terms of return on capital? And does it bring any technology to our existing core business? And if it doesn't, then it's got to really stand on its own … And our decision on supersonic was that it didn't."

Projects

Aerion SBJ

The Aerion SBJ was a

project designed by Aerion. Unveiled in 2004, the designer sought a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with a

business aircraft Business aircraft are aircraft typically used by companies and corporations to transport people or goods related to the needs of said businesses. Most business aircraft are general aviation aircraft variants of piston or turboprop or busin ...

manufacturer anticipating a $1.2–1.4 billion development in 7–8 years. Aerion received 50 letters-of-intent before enlarging the design as the Aerion AS2 in 2014. Powered by two

Pratt & Whitney JT8D The Pratt & Whitney JT8D is a low-bypass (0.96 to 1) turbofan engine introduced by Pratt & Whitney in February 1963 with the inaugural flight of the Boeing 727. It was a modification of the Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojet engine which powered the ...

-219 engines, the $80 million aircraft would transport 8-12 passengers up to Mach 1.6 and up to .

Aerion AS2

The Aerion AS2 was announced in May 2014, as a larger Aerion SBJ redesign, targeting introduction after a seven year development period. Aerion initially partnered with

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

on the project in September 2014. In December 2017, Airbus was replaced as a partner by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

. Its General Electric Affinity engine for the AS2 was unveiled in October 2018. In February 2019,

replaced Lockheed Martin as a partner. The 12 passenger aircraft aimed for Mach 1.4 with a supersonic natural

laminar flow Laminar flow () is the property of fluid particles in fluid dynamics to follow smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral m ...

wing for a minimum projected range of 4,750 nm (8,800 km). It was designed to have flown at just below the sound barrier while flying over land in order to comply with supersonic flight restrictions. A $4 billion development cost was anticipated, for a market for 300 aircraft over 10 years and 500 aircraft overall, at $120 million each. A preliminary design review was delayed until 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Aerion had projected a $40 billion market for the AS2 with a $3.18 billion order backlog from companies such as

Flexjet Flexjet is an American provider of fractional ownership aircraft, leasing, and jet card services. Founded in 1995 as a division of Bombardier Aerospace, it is currently owned by Directional Aviation, an aviation private investment firm. Backg ...

and discussions for orders valued at another $6.2 billion.

Aerion AS3

Aerion announced, in March 2021, a 50 seat hypersonic Mach 4 airliner project aimed to achieve a range of . The company targeted commercial availability by 2029.

References

External links

* {{Aerion aircraft Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Reno, Nevada