Fair-Craft Carrier

Fair-Craft Carrier
In yet a further attempt to shore up its position in the large aircraft sector, Boeing has come up with some further methods of revamping its 747 design. To make the venerable bird fly a bit faster for their money, operators are being offered a streamlining upgrade to pare back the drag factor and reduce costs.

Aviation Week magazine reports that the "speed kit" and a basic fuselage stretch are two upgrade options that might be offered to operators of current and future 747 models.

While the company has been talking about lengthened and extended range 747's for a while now in the face of imminent opposition from the giant Airbus A380, the modified drag package is seen as a way of winning customers with an option cheaper than buying an entirely new aircraft.

Fair's fair
According to the Aviation Week article, the speed kit idea has already been discussed with operators. Indeed, the concept has been around for more than a decade and already wind tunnel proven. However, with no serious competitors for the 747 until now, Boeing didn't really have to try too hard to incoporate the extras.

The current model 747's can cruise along at about Mach 0.855, which is approximately 1,017 km/h. By adding a series of streamlined fairings to the aircraft however, Boeing engineers reckon they could squeeze an extra 30 km/h out of the bird. That would mean a saving of about half an hour on a typical London to Los Angeles flight.

The fairings would take advantage of a basic aerodynamic principle, called "area rule", which links the total drag of an aircraft to its total cross-section. Aerodynamacists discovered as early as the 1920's that pinching a plane's fuselage at key points could provide significant drag reductions. The point where the wings attach to the fuselage is one of those key zones.

With the new Boeing plans, streamlined panels would be attached to the area under the nose of the aircraft, behind the cockpit, forward of the tail and at the wing roots. These changes could be made to the current Longer Range 747's.

There could also be additional upgrades available for the model as well, including refined engine structures and output, which would provide greater efficiency and lower noise levels. A gamut of interior features will also be available to woo operators and passengers, including sleeper berths and gaming lounges.

Another more radical proposal in the offing is adding circular "plugs" to a cut up fuselage section. If included fore and aft of the wing roots, the donut-shaped extensions would increase cabin volume by about 20 percent. Boeing thinks that this might be a good solution for cargo carriers who are simply looking for increased capacity in their models. Performing the same stretch on a passenger version of the 747 would entail a re-design of things like galleys, crew accommodation and washrooms to account for the increased human load. This probably wouldn't be economically viable undertaking.

Feeling the need
The simple "hacking" of the 747 models pales in comparison to the much more radical "near sonic" transport which Boeing unveiled plans for earlier this year. Seeing the futility of a battle of attrition with Airbus over aircraft with large passenger capacity, Boeing opted to create a new niche for very fast airliners.

The company showed off some flashy graphic art at a press conference in March and claimed that their planned aircraft would be capable of speeds up to Mach 0.95, or 1,130 km/h. The ability to fly that fast over extended ranges should theoretically allow passengers to travel where they want to go quickly, and without the hassle and delay of intermediate stops. It's this last point that is the most important to the future Boeing aircraft's success. Reaching such velocities is no problem, but for a commercial widebody, the fuel costs would be ruinous. One of the main reasons nobody has ever bothered to build a competitor for Concorde is down to basic economics. Indeed, the Anglo-French Concorde would never get past the drawing board under today's tight environmental guidelines and rising fuel prices. Flying over longer ranges is also an impossibility for Concorde because it could never carry enough gas.

Solving this speed versus consumption equation is what Boeing's new project is all about, and Virgin Airlines has just announced it could be the first operator to buy into the dream. The airline's founder and CEO said that Virgin would be a potential launch customer for the "sonic cruiser' and would ultimately consider a purchase of up to six of the aircraft, which would cut the London to Hong Kong route by up to 2 hours.

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