Douglas 2229

Significant steps have been taken throughout the 1950s to develop and understand the aerodynamics of supersonic flight. They allowed to come close to creating an aircraft capable of performing a long flight at high Mach values. The development of new engines, air intakes, a new (deltoid) wing and the development of new materials ( titanium and stainless steel ) made it possible to solve many problems faced by the pioneers of supersonic flights. By the end of the 1950s, the United States was developing two aircraft capable of performing long flights at supersonic speeds - the Lockheed A-12 and B-70 Valkyrie , and the United Kingdom was developing the Avro 730 aircraft.

The concept of a passenger supersonic aircraft seemed to be a logical development of existing machines - passenger aircraft all sought to fly "faster and further." However, at supersonic speeds, the lifting force acts somewhat differently than at subsonic speeds and always loses in efficiency. Subsonic aircraft of that time had an aerodynamic quality of about 19, while even the most well-developed supersonic schemes barely reached 9 ^[1] . For military aircraft, this was not a serious problem, since the main factor was speed, but a passenger plane would have consumed twice as much fuel to transport the same number of passengers, which negatively affected operating costs. To compensate for the increased costs, supporters of supersonic passenger aircraft proposed increasing the price of tickets in exchange for a significant reduction in flight time to their destination. Such an approach would make this segment of transportation attractive for wealthy passengers. In addition, theoretically high speed allows you to reduce the number of aircraft required to move the same number of passengers on the same route.

By the beginning of the 1960s, several companies showed models and mockups of supersonic passenger aircraft at once, but most of them did not have a serious scientific study ^[2] . However, at that time, supersonic passenger aircraft seemed a natural next step in the development of transport.

Like other aviation companies, Douglas since the late 1950s has been considering the concept of a supersonic passenger aircraft ^[2] . After a preliminary study, the company came to disappointing results. In one of the proposed options, the only free space on board for fuel was the space inside the fuselage, which led to the appearance of a caricature in which passengers sat immersed in fuel in spacesuits under the inscription “Do not smoke!” ^[3] .

However, as the market idea for supersonic passenger traffic developed, Douglas began working on project 2229, which was the first serious approach to this concept ^[2] . Project 2229 was based on the developments applied in project B-70, but used a wing of a different shape. A high wing was used on the B-70, using compression lift generated by the bow and air intakes of the engines, but this concept was unacceptable for passenger aircraft in which the fuselage was located above the wing to improve visibility and facilitate loading and unloading ^[2] . The deltoid wing was very long, only a little shorter than the fuselage.

Four engines were located in a 25-meter compartment under the wing, as on the B-70. In the Douglas project, cones were to be installed on the engine air intakes, unlike the B-70, where one splitter was used. After the air intakes, air passed through one large channel with a varying profile, which allowed it to slow down the flow to subsonic speeds. Then the flow was again divided into four channels leading to the engines. Chassis retracted into a niche next to the air intake duct ^[2] .

Some developments were directly borrowed from the B-70. At high speeds, the extreme 6-meter segments of both wings deflected downward to increase compression lift, although by a much smaller angle than on the B-70, where the deviation reached 75 degrees ^[2] .

By the beginning of 1963, attempts had begun to combine the efforts of Bristol and Sud Aviation into a single project. National pride and support from the country's leaders ^[4] made these attempts feasible, and by mid-1963 it became clear that such a merger would occur. Around the same time, it became known that the USSR began developing its own supersonic passenger aircraft ^[5] .

This has caused serious concern in the United States. Despite the fact that all calculations showed the unprofitable operation of such aircraft ^[6] , political considerations required neglect of economic indicators. By the spring of 1963, the US Federal Aviation Administration was actively developing a concept for the development of supersonic passenger transport, and the PanAm statement on placing orders for Concorde in May of that year finally decided the fate of the program ^[7] . It was officially announced on June 5, 1963.

By this time, project 2229 entered the stage of detailed design. The maximum take-off mass of a 100-seat aircraft was approximately 200 tons, more than the Boeing 707 with a 20% less passenger capacity. Since operating costs are determined by specific fuel consumption, such figures did not inspire designers ^[3] .

The marketing department was also not thrilled. According to a report by the Stanford Research Institute, the market for such aircraft will be only 325 aircraft, provided that they will be used on all routes with a length of more than 1000 miles (about 1800 km). Their own calculations, suggesting that supersonic planes will only be used on routes with high passenger flow, reduced this figure to 151. Douglas still had to recoup the costs of launching the DC-8 model series, and, despite orders for 200 aircraft, the company there were doubts about the overall payback of the program ^[8] .

On August 26, 1963, Donald Douglas Jr. wrote a letter to the head of the FAA, Najib Halaby, in which he said that the company would not exhibit Model 2229 to participate in the national program. In this letter, Douglas said that the main reasons for the refusal are problems with the development of new DC-8 and DC-9 models and participation in various military projects that did not leave them unoccupied engineering resources ^[3] .

As a result, the winner of the competition was the Boeing 2707 project.

• After the DC-8 // Flight International . - 1961, November 30. - P. 849.
• Conway, Erik. High-speed dreams: NASA and the technopolitics of supersonic transportation . - JHU Press, 2005.