Sonic Boom

Sonic boom cannot he avoided. However current large supersonic delta wing type designs pro­duce sonic booms in excess of 2.5 psf. much more than Concorde. On top of that the subsonic specific range of these aircraft is less than the supersonic cruise specific range. Flying subsonic over land will therefore result in a significant range penally.

The sonic boom of an oblique dying wing is much less than Concorde’s. It was deter­mined using the Whitham F-function method and the TranAir full potential code. The OFW was modeled by a slewed elliptic lift and Sears-Haack area distribution, a panel method and a high definition surface geometry. All representations gave similar boom signatures, as follows: •