Building the business jet that silences the sonic boom

The article discusses Spike Aerospace’s development of the Spike S-512 “Diplomat,” a quiet supersonic business jet designed to overcome the challenges that grounded Concorde, primarily the disruptive sonic boom and regulatory bans on overland supersonic flight. By employing advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD), aerodynamic sculpting, and design principles inspired by NASA’s X-59 program, Spike aims to enable supersonic travel over land routes with significantly reduced noise. The S-512 is engineered to cruise at Mach 1.6, potentially cutting transatlantic flight times, such as New York to London or Paris, to under four hours while maintaining fuel efficiency and passenger comfort. Key technical innovations focus on reshaping the aircraft’s fuselage—particularly an elongated nose cone, high-swept wings, and tail—to spread out shock waves and prevent their coalescence into loud sonic booms. The design uses multi-lobed lift distribution and area ruling to smooth cross-sectional changes, reducing wave drag