Ten years on from NBAA’s 2004 show when Aerion first shared its dream of building a supersonic business jet, the company believes it is at last poised to turn this into reality with its new partner Airbus. This afternoon at the Orange County Convention Center, Aerion chairman Robert Bass will welcome Airbus Group chairman and CEO Allan McArtor at the company’s exhibit (Booth 2220) and the two of them will formally launch an alliance that they believe will lead to the Aerion AS2 entering service in the second quarter of 2022.
One of the first tasks for the new joint-development team is to step up the selection of a 15,000- to 20,000-pound-thrust engine to power the supersonic trijet. Aerion CEO Doug Nichols told AIN that all business aviation engine makers (effectively Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and GE) are in contention to provide the AS2 powerplant. Another possibility being considered is adapting a low-bypass military engine for the program.
“We’re looking at an optimum combination of thrust, weight, specific fuel consumption, pressure ratios, durability in the supersonic environment and noise,” Nichols explained. “They are all critical components of the equation. Ultimately, noise drives a lot of design decisions, because airport, or community, noise is a regulatory limitation whereas the other criteria are not.”
Airbus’s Defense and Space division also is supporting Aerion in the task of specifying and sourcing airframe structures, avionics and other equipment during the design phase. The companies hope to fly the Mach 1.6, $100 million-plus AS2 in the third quarter of 2019 and achieve FAA certification in the third quarter of 2021.
For a full update on the Aerion AS2 see Wednesday’s edition of NBAA Convention News.
