THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994 TAG: 9406020422
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: 940602 LENGTH: WASHINGTON
The titanium airplane with a cockpit that looks like a video arcade pulls into Tokyo in just over four hours - cutting six hours off the normal trip. Getting to Asia from Los Angeles is no more of a hassle than a hop to Chicago.
Jet-lagged international travelers have been anticipating such an airplane for 20 years, since Congress halted development of a first-generation supersonic jetliner and Europe produced the rival Concorde - an economic flop.
Advances in technology have raised hopes in the Clinton administration that the longstanding economic and environmental problems with supersonic jets can be overcome - if the government puts in the seed money.
Without much fanfare given the stakes, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is poised to issue a $1.5 billion contract in the coming weeks to a consortium of every major U.S. commercial airplane and jet engine company for an ambitious research program leading to a supersonic jet in regular service by 2005.
The money comes from the $1.9 billion budget of the High Speed Research Project based at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. Langley is NASA's ``lead center'' for development of a U.S. supersonic passenger jet, called a High Speed Civil Transport or HSCT, that would fly about 1,500 mph.
``We're responsible for the whole effort,'' said Alan Wilhite, technology integration manager for the program at NASA Langley.
The contract represents Phase II of the program, Wilhite said. Phase II focuses on the economic viability of the HSCT, developing the technology to build the planes - higher-performance engines, advanced aerodynamics, new materials and structures, not building the airplanes.
NASA hopes Americans would dominate the building effort, though it would likely include foreign suppliers and investors. About $500 million will be spent at Langley for the airframe research, mostly on materials and structures, Wilhite said. Another $500 million will be spent at Lewis Research Center in Cleveland on propulsion research.
``The reason we're spending money on the U.S. industry,'' Wilhite said, ``is that we will have a leadership position in the next generation of high-speed air transport.''
It's the sort of colossal industrial project that would require enormous investments, carry huge technical risks and raise potentially serious environmental concerns.
Phase I of the program, a $500 million effort that began in 1990 and ends in fiscal year 1995, has focused on those environmental concerns, such as ozone depletion and noise reduction. Wilhite said reasonable technological solutions have been identified. Tests at the Lewis Research Center have shown that engine designers should be able to cut polluting emissions by 90 percent.
Noise reduction also is a concern because of the loud, double booms normally heard when an airplane cracks the sound barrier. Ongoing computer studies indicate that reshaping the airplane body could reduce the boom to a small rumble.
Some experts claim NASA is too optimistic about its ability to solve the environmental concerns. The airlines, reeling from financial losses, have voiced little enthusiasm for buying new planes, particularly planes a decade away.
But there is a huge potential payoff if the skeptics are wrong and the plane fulfills its promise of being far more fuel-efficient than the Concorde and if it can fly without fouling the atmosphere.
NASA touts the program as the most important industrial project in the nation's future and says it is a key to halting the erosion of American dominance of the world aircraft industry.
At stake is a potential $200 billion in orders for 500 to 1,000 of the supersonic aircraft that would support roughly 140,000 manufacturing jobs in such areas as Southern California and Seattle, said Wesley Harris, NASA's aeronautics chief.
``We have growing confidence that this plane will be built by 2005 by either the U.S. or the Europeans,'' he said. ``Who will build it? U.S. companies must be in the driver's seat.''
The strong advocacy reflects a changed attitude at NASA, which for years has sponsored aircraft research that often helped foreign competitors as much as Americans and often engaged in academic research with little commercial value.
Since the Apollo moon missions, NASA's commitment to aeronautics has withered. Director Dan Goldin now wants to put more emphasis on helping the U.S. aircraft industry, drawing strong support from Congress. Last year, lawmakers gave the supersonic program $10 million more than the $187 million requested by NASA.
``We have underfunded aviation research and we need to make substantial investments in this area,'' said Rep. George Brown, D-Calif., chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. ``This program is a good thing for the nation to do.''
Under the new supersonic program, the archrivals of the commercial aircraft industry will be partners under NASA's direction for the first time: Boeing and McDonnell Douglas for the jet's airframe and General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the engines.
By pooling America's best talents, NASA hopes to make the major breakthroughs needed to make a supersonic jetliner economically viable.
That task alone is daunting.
The program to actually develop the aircraft, including the detailed engineering of each of millions of parts and the building of thousands of production tools, would require a private-sector investment of $15 billion - more than double the cost of past jetliner developments.
Even if high sales volume defrayed the investment expense, the planes would cost $180 million to $300 million each. A Boeing 747 today costs roughly $150 million.
Proponents argue that the high price would be offset by the aircraft's ability to make two trips for every one that a subsonic plane makes. As a result, fares would be no more than 20 percent higher than current tickets, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas engineers say.
``It would make this an airplane for everybody, not just high-paying passengers,'' said Bruce Bunin, McDonnell's manager for the program in Long Beach, Calif.
``I believe it is the most critical manufacturing decision this country will make in the next 10 years,'' said Harris, the NASA aeronautics chief.
{KEYWORDS} LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER SUPERSONIC JET by CNB