Asian Aerospace 2002: Boeing in no hurry on Sonic Cruiser Having started with a blank computer screen and a generous specification spread of 100 to 300 seats and range of 7,000 to 9,000 mi, Boeing engineers now have narrowed their studies to 200 to 250 seats with range beginning at 6,500 nm, according to Dan Mooney, Boeing Commercial Airplanes product-development vice president.

The company is working with engine manufacturers and a number of “customers” to refine the initial configuration, which involves a canard configuration with engines buried deep in pods that flank two tailfins above the trailing edge of a sharply swept wing.

Mooney said that adoption of a common twin-aisle cabin cross-section, which could be used for a new Boeing “family,” has proved a breakthrough. “We do not have to work with the area-ruling that appeared in previous high-speed designs,” he said. Boeing is making extensive use of computational fluid dynamics to understand likely aerodynamic behavior and expects advanced composites materials to be required to meet (unspecified) weight targets.