Image: Aerion
Aerion Corporation and Spirit AeroSystems have announced that they will be collaborating on the preliminary design of the forward, pressurized fuselage for Aerion’s AS2 supersonic business jet. Spirit joins a growing list of Aerion partners including Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin and GE Aviation. The company says it expects to begin preliminary development immediately.
“Joining a project team this early allows us to apply our technical expertise and commercial best practices to make the most positive impact,” said Spirit AeroSystems CEO Tom Gentile. “We can create cost-efficient, innovative engineering solutions that take into account Spirit’s highly efficient manufacturing processes.”
The AS2 is a 12-seat business jet design that is expected to cruise at Mach 1.4 and have a service ceiling of 60,000 feet. It will be powered by three GE Affinity engines and have a price tag of $120 million. According to Aerion, the AS2’s first flight will occur in 2023, with its first trans-Atlantic flight scheduled Oct. 24 of that year, the 20th anniversary of the last commercial flight of the Concorde supersonic airliner. Development cost for the AS2 program has been estimated as high as $4 billion.
