Spike Aerospace, a startup company based in Boston, Massachusetts, that aims to develop a quiet supersonic 18-passenger jet, said this week it will be ready to fly a technology demonstrator by late this summer. The subsonic test vehicle will be flown to verify the design’s low-speed aerodynamic stall recovery characteristics, the company said. “We made a lot of progress in 2016 in engineering, and [added] a number of engineers and partners,” said CEO Via Kachoria, in a news release. AVweb reached out to the company for more details about the planned test vehicle — how big will it be? piloted or autonomous? Kachoria responded that more details will be forthcoming in mid-February. The company also said a series of larger, supersonic demonstrators are expected to fly by the end of next year.
The Spike S-512 will be the first supersonic jet designed with “Quiet Supersonic Flight” technology, the company says. The proprietary technology, developed by Spike, aims to minimize the sonic boom by optimizing the aerodynamic design, making it possible that the jet could fly over lands where booms are forbidden. Flying at supersonic cruising speed, the S-512 will cut flight time by half between many city pairs, at a cost equivalent to a business-class seat, according to the company. For example, Spike says its jet will fly from New York to Dubai in six hours. The aircraft is expected to reach the market by 2023.
