wind tunnels
he XB-1 demonstrator is leading
the resurrection of commercial
supersonic air travel. The technology
demonstrator will test all of the key
technologies for the 55-passenger Overture airliner
being developed by Denver, Colorado-based firm Boom.
This includes an almost all-composite frame, titanium
components and innovations that will be used in the
manufacturing processes.
“XB-1 is all about testing. The testing leads up to
Overture. The entire purpose of the XB-1 program is to
de-risk Overture by testing every key technology that
goes into it and proving that it all actually works,” says
Boom founder and CEO, Blake Scholl. To develop the
XB-1 See box, XB-1 Development, Scholl and his team
have so far worked through more than 350 aerodynamic
design iterations and carried out more than 1,000
materials tests and validations of key structural
components such as, spars, ribs, tails, joints and
mechanisms, such as actuators.
The testing also included the use of wind tunnels.
The first wind tunnel test obtained calibration data for
the tunnel and the scale-model. A further test was then
conducted to confirm that the calibration was correct.
“The third wind tunnel test was to confirm that the
final design does with real air exactly what we think it
should do, says Scholl. “We finished that late last year,
and got a clean bill of health out of the wind tunnel.”
A fourth wind tunnel test analyzed the performance
of the engine inlets. With supersonic flight the friction
between the supersonic air and the aircraft generates
XB-1 DEVELOPMENT
The XB-1, also known as the Baby
Boom, is the sub-scale technology
demonstrator for Boom’s supersonic
airliner Overture. XB-1 is powered by
three General Electric J85-15 engines,
adapted by Boom for Mach-2.2
operation. However, the engines for
Overture have not been selected.
After initial taxi tests at BOOM’s
Centennial, Colorado headquarters,
XB-1 will be transported to Mojave,
California for a flight test campaign.
The initial flights will focus on
takeoff, climb, subsonic cruise,
approach, and landing, followed by
supersonic flights.
XB-1 uses the same key
technologies as Overture; carbon fibre
composites, a delta wing planform
and a variable-geometry propulsion
system, where the engine inlets can
be moved. The demonstrator has
more than 3,700 parts, including
custom composite structure,
tricycle landing gear, flight control
actuators, systems for pressurization
and cooling, avionics, and a highbandwidth
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telemetry system.
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