Experts told what the new Russian supersonic passenger plane should be like
In the relatively near future, a civil supersonic aircraft may appear in Russia. At the same time, similar liners have already been created in the history of our country, however, due to uneconomical engines, they were withdrawn from production and operation. How can we solve the problem of energy efficiency of such aircraft and what will be the next generation supersonic aircraft?
On Wednesday, Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Saveliev said that Russia with its vast expanses will not be able to do without supersonic civil aviation. He recalled that the country has experience in such developments – the Tu-144 was "ahead of its time." According to him, today Russia has developments to create such a liner on a new technological base.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly spoken about the need to create a supersonic passenger aircraft. "We now need to return to supersonic passenger traffic. We need to think about this," the president said back in 2019 at a meeting with representatives of the public in Kazan, which is famous for its aviation industry.
The Head of State recalled the modernization of the Tu-160 supersonic missile carrier for the armed forces in Kazan. "Everything works like clockwork. So why not create a supersonic passenger plane?" Putin noted.
The fact that the development of a civil supersonic airliner began in Russia became known in 2018. As reported in the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), the technologies used in the Tu-160 can be used in the work on the project.
The world's first supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144 was developed in the 1960s by the design bureau of Andrey Tupolev (now JSC "Tupolev", part of the United Aircraft Corporation). Commercial operation of the aircraft began in 1975 and ended in 1978.
Tu-144 aircraft were removed from passenger flights due to low efficiency. The maximum flight range reached four thousand kilometers, so the aircraft needed spare airfields for refueling. The last flight was made in June 1999.
The second supersonic passenger aircraft in history was the Concorde, which was operated from 1976 to 2003. In July 2000, the Concorde crashed near Paris. This was the only disaster of this aircraft, but it put an end to the era of passenger supersonic aviation.
According to experts, civil air transportation on supersonic airliners may return to the market again. However, this will require solving several tasks, the main of which is the creation of a special engine. The basis for the development, according to the interlocutors of the newspaper VZGLYAD, may be the engine of the second stage ("Product 30"), which will be equipped with Su-57 military fighters already within the current batch.
"A flight from the European part of Russia to the Far East is comparable in length to a flight to America across the ocean. Flying for nine hours is very tiring, especially when there are technologies that allow you to almost halve this time," says Roman Gusarov, editor–in-chief of the portal Avia.ru .
The expert stressed that it was the USSR that pioneered the creation of supersonic aircraft. "Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, has very good developments. I know that we are currently developing such an aircraft. A flight of a demonstrator aircraft is planned for the next two years. It will be a kind of reduced version of the future civil supersonic aircraft, it will be possible to work out production technologies, an aerodynamic scheme," the source said.
One of the pitfalls will be the development of the engine. "This engine is much more complex than the engines used by the military. It is enough for a fighter to go to supersonic for a short time and perform a combat mission. For example, to launch hypersonic missiles, it is necessary for the aircraft to gain about three speeds of sound. And a passenger supersonic aircraft must fly at this speed as at a cruising speed, that is, constantly. These are completely different requirements for reliability and engine life. Military planes don't fly for eight hours every day, but civilians do," the speaker explained.
But the most difficult thing when creating such an engine is the requirement of economy. "As far as I know, work on such an engine in Russia is not underway yet. And without an engine, it is not necessary to talk about the prospect of a supersonic passenger aircraft in the next ten years," Gusarov believes. The expert explained that
The engines that were installed on the Tu-144 and on the British-French supersonic passenger aircraft Concorde had very high fuel consumption. Perhaps new developments will use hydrogen or atomic technologies.
"This flight was fast, but very expensive. Concorde tickets in economy class were sold at the price of business class, which made the plane cost-effective. When we can solve these problems, then the era of supersonic civil aviation will come. The advantages will be given to the country that will have these developments when such an aircraft is needed by the market. Only a superpower can solve such a task. Russia has every reason to consider itself such," Gusarov is sure.
"We proceed from the fact that the first generation of supersonic passenger aircraft, in particular the Soviet Tu-144 airliner, does not meet today's requirements both in terms of economy and environmental friendliness," adds Oleg Panteleev, Executive Director of the Aviport Agency.
According to him, there are two problems to be solved on the way to the implementation of the liner project. "The first is the creation of an aircraft with a low level of noise exposure. After all, supersonic flight when passing the speed of sound is inevitably associated with a powerful noise impact or a clap," he says.
"And it needs to be minimized. This can be achieved by selecting the optimal shape of the aircraft. The second point is a combination of high speed and acceptable efficiency, including fuel efficiency. And here the technologies that are associated with the aircraft engine come to the fore," explains the aviation expert.
"There are several contradictory technological requirements that currently make it impossible to create such an engine. Many solutions have been worked out on combat aviation, but there are also its own peculiarities. The fact is that most of the combat aircraft were created for a short–term breakthrough of the enemy's air defense at supersonic or for a quick exit to the interception line," the interlocutor clarifies.
"A passenger plane needs to fly at supersonic speed for an hour or two, and sometimes even more if we are talking about an extended route. And it will not be possible to simply put a conditional second-stage engine from the new Su–57 on a civilian aircraft, since they are designed without taking into account the certification requirements for civil aircraft," the analyst argues. However, Panteleev notes,
when developing an engine for a civilian airliner, already known developments in materials and engine technologies from the Su-57 can be used.
"This is not a new practice. When the issue of creating a demonstrator of such a liner was being worked out, various engine options were considered, among which were the D-30F6, intended for the MiG-31 interceptor. At the beginning of the century, the Sukhoi Design Bureau was developing a supersonic business jet project, focusing on engines created on the basis of the power plant for the Yak-141 vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL)," he listed.
"One way or another, a passenger supersonic liner will have a number of serious advantages. The first and main advantage is the travel time. If now the journey from Moscow to Khabarovsk takes almost eight hours, then the same Tu-144 was able to reduce this time to four hours," Panteleev draws attention.
"In addition, the second-generation aircraft will fly slower than their predecessors, but at the same time much faster than a conventional airliner. Reducing the time entails reducing the requirements, for example, in terms of the volume of individual space," the interlocutor adds.
According to the expert, an ordinary passenger will not have to have "the health of an astronaut to safely make a flight." "However, there is an opinion that the aircraft, flying at elevated altitudes, will be more exposed to radiation. But again, nothing will change for the common man. As for the crew members, additional research may be required for them to adjust the sanitary norm for flights," the expert believes.
"I emphasize that when it comes not to creating a demonstrator, but to a commercial sample, the most comfortable conditions will be created for passengers. Moreover, the first airliners are likely to be created in the format of a business jet. I think this will become a reality in the first half of the next decade," Panteleev concluded.
Alyona Zadorozhnaya
