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The Boeing Sonic Cruiser was a concept airliner with a delta wing-canard configuration. It was distinguished from conventional jet airliners by its delta wing and high-subsonic cruising speed of up to Mach 0.98. Boeing first proposed it in 2001, but airlines generally preferred lower operating costs over higher speed. Boeing ended the Sonic Cruiser project in December 2002 and shifted to the slower (Mach 0.85), but more fuel-efficient 7E7 (later named 787 Dreamliner) airliner. ==Design and development== The Sonic Cruiser concept developed from studies that began in the 1990s.〔Wallace, James. ("They said it would never fly but Boeing's 'Engineer X' proved them wrong" ). ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' via archives.californiaaviation.org, April 20, 2001.〕〔Taylor III, Alex. ("Boeing's Amazing Sonic Cruiser It was supposed to change the way the world flies. Instead the world changed" ). Fortune Magazine, December 9, 2002.〕 A variety of concepts were studied, including supersonic aircraft, aircraft with the engines mounted above the wing, aircraft with a single vertical tail, and aircraft with rectangular intakes. The initial sketches released to the public were highly conjectural. A patent drawing filed by Boeing on March 22, 2001 put the baseline aircraft's dimensions at approximately in length, with a wingspan of .〔(United States Patent 6575406, "Integrated and/or modular high-speed aircraft" (summary) ), ((full text) ). hosted on freepatentsonline.com.〕 The Sonic Cruiser was born from one of numerous outline research and development projects at Boeing with the goal to look at potential designs for a possible new near-sonic or supersonic airliner.〔Haenggi 2003, pp. 83–86.〕 The strongest of these initial concepts was named the "Sonic Cruiser" and publicly unveiled on March 29, 2001,〔("Boeing Discusses Supplier Involvement Plan For Sonic Cruiser" ). Boeing, January 24, 2002.〕 shortly after the launch of the A380 by rival Airbus. Boeing had recently withdrawn its proposed 747X derivative from competition with the A380 when not enough airline interest was forthcoming, and instead proposed the Sonic Cruiser as a completely different approach.〔 Instead of the A380's massive capacity, requiring a hub and spoke model of operation, the Sonic Cruiser was designed for rapid point-to-point connections for 200 to 250 passengers.〔 With a delta wing and canards arrangement, and flying just short of the speed of sound at Mach 0.95-0.98 (about 627 mph or 1,010 km/h at altitude), the Sonic Cruiser promised 15-20% faster speed than conventional airliner without the noise pollution caused by the sonic boom from supersonic travel. The aircraft design was to fly at altitudes in excess of , and a range somewhere between and .〔Gunter, Lori. ("The Need for Speed, Boeing's Sonic Cruiser team focuses on the future" ). Boeing Frontier magazine, July 2002.〕 Boeing estimated the Sonic Cruiser's fuel efficiency to be comparable to best performing twin-engine wide body airliners in 2002.〔 Wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics analysis further refined the Sonic Cruiser concept. Based on artwork released by Boeing in July 2002, the Sonic Cruiser now sported two taller vertical tails with no inward cant, and the forward canard was set at zero degrees dihedral.〔("Sonic Cruiser - Boeing's Mystery Ship" ). Aviation-News.co.uk.〕 Boeing was working to finalize the aircraft's configuration in mid-2002.〔〔("Boeing Updates Sonic Cruiser Configuration" ). Boeing, July 22, 2002.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boeing Sonic Cruiser」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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