Gulfstream is quietly making progress toward a supersonic business jet that might be able to fly above Mach 1 over the U.S. FAA regulations currently ban supersonic flight over land in the U.S. The company has earned three patents in the last few months toward that end and Business in Savannah says that’s a pretty clear indication of the company’s focus. It also quotes Gulfstream’s Steve Cass as saying supersonic flight over land is a bottom-line requirement for any future development.”From the beginning, we’ve made it clear that we are not going to begin building a quiet supersonic aircraft prototype until its operation is approved by the respective aviation authorities for use over land,” Cass said Monday.”Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen tomorrow.” Nevertheless, earning patents in this realm is a complicated and costly process and the patents awarded might describe a path toward prototype development.
Perhaps the most significant patent is8,789.789 for a “supersonic aircraft with spike for controlling and reducing sonic boom.” The company showed the idea off on NASA’s F-15 test aircraft with a, well, long retractable spike protruding from the front. The spike spreads out the effect of the pressure wave that builds in front of a transonic aircraft and makes the noise heard on the ground a lot more tolerable and less destructive. The other patents cover”systems and methods for controlling magnitude of a sonic boom” and one for “a propulsion system using large-scale vortex generators for flow redistribution and supersonic aircraft equipped with the propulsion system,” Business in Savannah said. Gulfstream never comments directly on development projects.
