Help Wanted: More information on this image

[RJN]

My Fellow Asterickians,

I can't seem to find any detailed information about this page:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegal ... _1698.html
which is actually this image:


I welcome anyone's help in posting links to more detailed information to this thread. I must warn you that "wild image chases" like this can be a tremendous time sink with sometimes no tangible return.

I have already looked in some obvious places. I could find nothing more on any NASA site. I could find nothing more on any Lockheed Martin site. All I could find are blogs and press-releases that essentially re-state the information already on the NASA page linked above.

One hope is that this image was listed in a NASA proposal that is somewhere online that I was unable to find. Information I am looking for includes the artist name, the size of the illustrated supersonic jet, and explanations as to why the proposed jet was drawn as it was.

- RJN

[Chris Peterson]

One hope is that this image was listed in a NASA proposal that is somewhere online that I was unable to find. Information I am looking for includes the artist name, the size of the illustrated supersonic jet, and explanations as to why the proposed jet was drawn as it was.

The broad project is described here. There are no more details than those found in the myriad releases of this image found all over the Net, although some other designs are shown in addition to that of Lockheed. I wouldn't be surprised if there is no other information; it sounds like they were just asking aviation companies to blue-sky ideas for future aircraft. Lockheed has already done work with inverted-V wing SST designs. This image may represent nothing more than an artist's dream, loosely based on some existing technology, but not really rigorously engineered at all. Auto companies produce similar renderings for concept cars that never make it past the drawing stage.

[RJN]

Thanks, Chis. Following your link, I found this link http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/nra_awa ... 6_08_d.htm which shows the same plane

and says

NASA has awarded an 18-month, $1.96 million study contract to a team led by Lockheed Martin Corporation to generate environmentally friendly supersonic airframe and propulsion concepts and develop technology maturation plans to make those concepts a reality.

It seems that this award was made in 2008, so the study could well be done by now.

- RJN

[bystander]

Supersonic Concept Plane Would Shush Sonic Booms
Space.com | 30 June 2010

A new design concept for a futuristic faster-than-sound aircraft could break through legal barriers to supersonic flights over land by shushing the sonic booms created by such vehicles.

The concept aircraft, envisioned by aerospace company Lockheed Martin, would revolutionize supersonic cruising by relying upon a so-called "inverted-V" engine-under wing configuration, where the engines sit atop the wings rather than beneath, NASA officials said in a statement.

A Lockheed illustration of the supersonic concept released by NASA is just one of several designs presented in April to the space agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate following a call for studies on advanced aircraft that could take to the skies sometime around 2030 or 2035.

I guess you aren't the only one looking.

[NoelC]

By the way, image searches can often be done very easily with this:

http://www.tineye.com

It turned up this:

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blo ... anes/7184/

-Noel