Conceptual Design of Low-Boom Aircraft with Flight Trim Requirement

A new low-boom target generation approach is presented which allows the introduction of a trim requirement during the early conceptual design of supersonic aircraft. The formulation provides an approximation of the center of pressure for a presumed aircraft configuration with a reversed equivalent area matching a low-boom equivalent area target. The center of pressure is approximated from a surrogate lift distribution that is based on the lift component of the classical equivalent area. The assumptions of the formulation are verified to be sufficiently accurate for a supersonic aircraft of high fineness ratio through three case studies. The first two quantify and verify the accuracy and the sensitivity of the surrogate center of pressure corresponding to shape deformation of lifting components. The third verification case shows the capability of the approach to achieve a trim state while maintaining the low-boom characteristics of a previously untrimmed configuration. Finally, the new low-boom target generation approach is demonstrated through the early conceptual design of a demonstrator concept that is low-boom feasible, trimmed, and stable in cruise.