The new Russian passenger supersonic aircraft should fly at a cruising speed of Mach 1.8-2.0 and have a range of up to 8.5 thousand km. The engine for it is incomparably more complex than those on supersonic fighters, explained Andrey Kozlov, General Director of the Central Institute of Aviation Motor Engineering named after P.I. Baranov.
According to him, civilian supersonic aircraft differ in operating modes and duration of supersonic flight.
Hence the different approaches in creating, designing, developing, and arranging power plants. For example, a fighter only needs to engage afterburner for a very short time and complete a combat mission. And a civilian aircraft takes off and gets into cruise mode.
Kozlov added that the new engine for the passenger aircraft should reach a speed of up to 2500 km/h in cruise mode and operate for 70-80% of the flight time practically at its limit.
There is another important nuance: noise in the airport area. In military aviation engines, the largest percentage of acoustic disturbance is created by the jet stream. To minimize the impact, it is necessary to reduce its outflow velocity. And this is only possible by increasing the bypass ratio. On the other hand, to overcome the sound barrier, the engine must have a high specific thrust, and this is, on the contrary, a low bypass ratio.
Kozlov stated that the laws of physics cannot be repealed, so this is about absolutely contradictory tasks.
But it is their solution that will reduce the flight by 7-8 thousand km to 4-5 hours, compared to subsonic machines, which take more than ten hours for this distance.
Before that, Baranov explained why the PD-8 and PD-14 engines are not suitable for a promising supersonic aircraft.