Low-boom technologies gain ground with improved measurement tools and more research

Several low-boom technologies were brought closer to readiness this year. Building on its Cart3D computational fluid dynamics solver, researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California demonstrated from January to April a fully integrated method for adjoint-based sonic boom minimization via trimmed control surface deflections that included geometry modeling, near-field aerodynamics, far-field propagation and ground-level loudness metrics. From November 2020 to May, researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency developed and validated a computationally efficient space marching method with molecular vibrational relaxation using a fast full-field simulation of sonic boom through a stratified atmosphere. These technology maturation advancements provide important tools enabling new and improved low-boom aircraft designs.