A supersonic business jet (SSBJ) is a

business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...

travelling above the

speed of sound The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elasticity (solid mechanics), elastic medium. More simply, the speed of sound is how fast vibrations travel. At , the speed of sound in a ...

: a

supersonic aircraft A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft capable of supersonic flight, that is, flying faster than the speed of sound (Mach number, Mach 1). Supersonic speed, Supersonic aircraft were developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Supersonic ...

. Some manufacturers are designing or have been designing SSBJs, but none are currently available. Usually intended to transport about ten passengers, proposed SSBJs would be about the same size as subsonic business jets. Only two commercial

supersonic transport The ogive.html" ;"title="Concorde supersonic transport had an ogive">ogival delta wing, a slender fuselage and four underslung Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines. file:Tu-144.jpg, The Tupolev Tu-144 was the first SST to enter service and th ...

s entered service: the Aérospatiale/British Aerospace

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

and the

Tupolev Tu-144 The Tupolev Tu-144 (; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a Soviet supersonic airliner, supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev in operation from 1968 to 1999. The Tu-144 was the world's first commercial supersonic transport aircraft wit ...

. Both were designed with government subsidies and did not recoup development costs. They had high operating costs and high noise. Some manufacturers believe these concerns can be addressed at a smaller scale, offering high speed transport for small groups of high-value passengers,

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

s or

heads of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

. Current proposals include the

Boom Overture The Boom Overture is a supersonic airliner under development by Boom Technology, designed to cruise at Mach 1.7 or . It is expected to carry 64 to 80 passengers, depending on configuration, with a range of . Boom aims to introduce the Ove ...

and the Spike S-512. Former proposals include the

Aerion SBJ The Aerion SBJ was a supersonic business jet project designed by American firm Aerion Corporation. Unveiled in 2004, the designer sought a joint venture with a business aircraft manufacturer for a $1.2–1.4 billion development in 7–8 years ...

Aerion AS2 The Aerion AS2 was a proposed supersonic business jet that was being developed by Aerion Corporation. In May 2014, it was announced that the Aerion AS2 would be part of a larger Aerion SBJ redesign, which aimed for release after a seven-year ...

, HyperMach SonicStar, SAI Quiet Supersonic Transport,

Sukhoi-Gulfstream S-21 Sukhoi-Gulfstream S-21 was a projected Russian-American supersonic business jet. In the early 1990s, Gulfstream Aerospace and the Sukhoi Design Bureau began a joint effort to develop a supersonic small business jet, code named the S-21. Due to ...

and Tupolev Tu-444. Several companies, including

Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is an American aircraft company and a subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 aircraft sinc ...

, work on sonic booms-mitigation technologies like the

Quiet Spike Quiet Spike was a collaborative program between Gulfstream Aerospace and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to investigate the suppression of sonic booms. The patent was published with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2004 and ...

Timeline

In 1997,

Dassault Aviation Dassault Aviation SA () is a French Aerospace manufacturer, manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Dassault, Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (Marcel Bloch Aircraft Company). After ...

was considering a Mach 1.8 supersonic business jet powered by three non-afterburning engines derived from subsonic aircraft, with a cabin similar to the

Falcon 50 The Dassault Falcon 50 is a French super-midsize, long-range business jet, featuring a trijet layout with an S-duct air intake for the central engine. It has the same fuselage cross-section and similar capacity as the earlier twin-engined Dassau ...

, capable of flying between Paris and New York. With a MTOW and over of fuel, it would cover a range of 7,200 km (4,500 nmi). In September 2004, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

selected the HISAC High Speed Aircraft program, launched with Dassault in 2005 and evaluating the feasibility of a small supersonic aircraft. By 2019, Dassault was reserved about the prospects for a supersonic business jet. In 2018,

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

proposed a civil SSBJ variant of the

Tu-160 The Tupolev Tu-160 (; NATO reporting name: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing nuclear-capable heavy strategic bomber and airborne missile platform designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. The aircra ...

bomber, for a potential market of 20-30 units in Russia alone at $100–120 million each. UAC previously studied a SSBJ, displaying a scale model at

MAKS Air Show MAKS (, ) is an international air show held at Zhukovsky International Airport, the home of the Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast, Zhukovsky, southeast of Moscow, Russia. The event was organized by the Russian Ministr ...

2017, to be designed and built in seven years with an existing engine like the NK-32 and a titanium

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aeros ...

, a limited production would be worth an expected $150 million price. In 2020,

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and opera ...

announced the design of a high speed

delta wing A delta wing is a wing shaped in the form of a triangle. It is named for its similarity in shape to the Greek uppercase letter delta (letter), delta (Δ). Although long studied, the delta wing did not find significant practical applications unti ...

aircraft for 9 to 19 people, targeting Mach 3 above , in partnership with

Rolls-Royce plc Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...

for its propulsion. In 2024,

Boom Technology Boom Technology, Inc. (trade name Boom Supersonic) is an American company developing the Overture, a supersonic airliner. It has also flight tested a one-third-scale demonstrator, the Boom XB-1 "Baby Boom", which broke the sound barrier for the ...

tested a subscale demonstrator

Boom XB-1 The Boom XB-1 "Baby Boom" is a retired trijet supersonic demonstrator designed by Boom Technology as part of the development of the Boom Overture supersonic transport airliner. Powered by three General Electric J85 engines, it was initially d ...

"Baby Boom", achieving supersonic flight for the first time. Boom are currently developing this prototype into a full scale commercial aircraft, the Boom Overture.

Gallery

Image:Sukhoi Gulfstream S-21.jpg, S-21 3D model

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{Supersonic transport Business aircraft

Business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people, typically business executives and high-ranking coworker, associates. Business jets are generally designed for faster air travel and more ...

Timeline

Gallery

See also

References

External links