Company Exosonic signed a contract with the US Air Force to develop a silent supersonic drone demonstrator. The new drone will help American military pilots in training missions, where it will portray the enemy. Also, with the help of this project, technologies relevant to other innovative projects of the developer will be worked out: the liner and the presidential aircraft.
Exosonic has several quiet supersonic projects. The startup is going to build a 70-seat supersonic airliner and an airplane, which in the future will become supersonic “Board number one”. Supersonic UAV is actually an auxiliary project, the developers want to test a number of technologies on it. Working with this UAV will allow engineers to learn a lot about design,production and maintenance of supersonic aircraft. Such a development will give investors, suppliers and customers confidence that the company will be able to deliver supersonic aircraft to the market before anyone has to make multibillion-dollar investments. In addition, the company plans to invest the profits from the sales of UAVs in the future development of supersonic products.
Also, the new supersonic drones will be able to reduce the wear and tear of aircraft that are currently playing this role in exercises, and ease the flight load of pilots.
Today, the U.S. Air Force includes the 18th Squadron at the airbase Eilsen in Alaska, as well as the 64th and 65th squadrons of the “aggressors” at the Nellis Air Base in Nevada, which during the exercises most often imitate MiG-29 and Su-27 combat aircraft, as well as Chinese J-10 and J-11. But this is not enough to fully train the required number of pilots. The new UAV, equipped with a payload and various sensors, will participate in training flight missions, simulating a simulated enemy.
Today, several companies are developing quiet supersonic aircraft. For example, Lockheed Martin creates the X-59 aircraft. It will be distinguished by an aerodynamic design that will reduce the intensity of shock waves generated on the glider in flight. The elongated sharp nose, which completely blocks the pilots’ forward view, will also reduce noise.
The government notes that small business is becoming a new player in the supersonic aviation industrial base of California. They support the idea of Exosonic and promote the project.
Such projects may also be of interest to civil aviation, as the possibilities of reducing noise from aircraft have been considered for a long time. A quiet airliner can become an alternative to aircraft in large cities.
The term of the contract is 15 months.
A source:
https://www.exosonic.com/post/usaf-awards-exosonic-contract-for-supersonic-uav-concept-with-adversary-air-mission-potential
