Japan is preparing a series of rocket launches that are part of a campaign to develop a next generation, passenger-carrying supersonic plane - a vehicle that could leave the Anglo/French Concorde in its contrail. The rocket-boosted experiments are to take place in Woomera, Australia.

The National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL) of Tokyo, Japan will fly several rocket-powered experimental planes from the Australian test site. Four test flights are now planned, with the first sub-scale plane taking to the skies this June.

The rocket-powered experimental planes are 38-feet (11.5 meters) long and tip the scales at two tons in weight. An improved type of Lambda booster, provided by Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS), will loft the prototype planes skyward.

Point-to-point travel

NAL's aim is to establish the leading-edge technology needed to build a next-generation supersonic transport - a 300 seat aircraft that cruises at more than twice the speed of sound. The number of seats would double that of the Anglo/French-created Concorde supersonic transport.

Japan's aircraft would offer a range of some 6,330 miles (10,200 kilometers), point-to-point. In overall size, the super-sleek craft would sport a wingspan of about 142-feet (43.4 meters), and be 310 feet (94.5 meters) in length. At takeoff, the vehicle would weigh 399 tons, according to NAL officials.

Explains Susumu Toda, NAL's director general: "We aim to accumulate the necessary technical data for supersonic transport design by developing a scaled supersonic test aircraft and conducting flight tests."

Japan-Australian agreement

NAL's work on the supersonic plane project has been underway since 1997.

By using scaled supersonic experimental airplanes, NAL engineers are judging aerodynamic shapes, computational fluid dynamics models, composite material technologies, and other next-generation supersonic technology.

Japan's use of a prohibited area within the Woomera, Australia test site is under agreement between the two governments and Australia's department of defense that manages the rocket site. That agreement was signed in April of 2001.

A rocket launch rail and necessary ground gear to support the test shots is under assembly and checkout at the Woomera test firing site, located in northern South Australia.

Woomera is a unique air and ground test range.

Positioned 280 miles (450 kilometers) north of the State’s capital, Adelaide, Woomera is the site for South Australia’s defence and aerospace test and evaluation activities. The size of England, the range is one of the largest in the world.

The way ahead

In the United States, a just-released study of commercial supersonic technology stresses that the global transportation infrastructure "would be enhanced by the addition of a truly high-speed transportation element."

A special committee of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board in the National Research Council, a research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, issued the report: Commercial Supersonic Technology: The Way Ahead.

The blue-ribbon study group, chaired by Dianne Wiley of The Boeing Company in Huntington Beach, California, concluded that "foreseeable technological advances" can solve key customer and design issues for commercial supersonic aircraft with cruise speeds of less than Mach 2 - twice the speed of sound.

A commercial supersonic vehicle flying at a higher speed of approximately Mach 2 -- a vehicle that normally zips through the stratosphere for best efficiency -- runs into the issue of engine emissions depleting atmospheric ozone and stirring up climate change worries.

"Even with the Concorde, supersonic flight was unavailable except on a few routes and only for those willing and able to pay the high airfares. Commercially successful supersonic flight will only occur when technology is developed and assembled into an aircraft that can be profitably manufactured in large quantities [hundreds of aircraft] and that is affordable for users and environmentally acceptable to society at large," the report explains.

Taking the boom out of sonic boom?

A viable commercial supersonic aircraft flying in 25 years or less can't happen without ample research and development dollars, the study warns.

The report points out that work, albeit not publicly available, is in progress on reducing sonic boom.

A Quiet Supersonic Platform Program is underway at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This effort is targeted at substantially reducing sonic boom, muffle takeoff and landing noise, and delves into advanced airframe designs.

More attention should be paid, the study group suggests, to coordinate research agendas, such as the DARPA work, with NASA and other federal agencies to help the nation better tackle commercial supersonic aircraft issues.

"If the United States intends to maintain its supremacy in the commercial aerospace sector, it has to take a long-term perspective and channel adequate resources into research and technology development," concludes the study.