A Turkish newspaper says Italian aviation giant Alenia is in talks with Russia’s Sukhoi to bring a new supersonic business jet to market by 2015. Hurriyet, an English daily, says the aircraft will fly at more than Mach 1.6, carry eight passengers and be designed to mitigate sonic booms. It sounds like an update on Gulfstream’s collaboration with Sukhoi to develop the S-21 supersonic business jet. Gulfstream bowed out of that project years ago but Sukhoi apparently kept working on it.
Sukhoi and Alenia have been working together on the Superjet, a regional jet that is now in flight testing. The S-21 was envisioned as a three-engine aircraft that would have been as big as a regional jet (more than 100 feet long and more than 50,000 lbs.) but most of that bulk was to be employed in quest for speed. Aerion, an American company, continues to work on a supersonic business jet design and is looking for a manufacturing partner.
