The first era of supersonic passenger flight started in 1976 and ended in 2003, and was symbolized by two iconic aircraft: the European Concorde and the Russian Tu-144.
Apart from economic considerations, the main barrier that limited the expansion of supersonic flight at that time was the sonic boom phenomenon, which generated such an intense and sudden noise that supersonic flight was soon banned over populated areas in many countries, hence shrinking down the supersonic market to overwater routes only.
This eventually proved to be insufficient to run sustainable and profitable operations and, since 2003, no supersonic commercial aircraft is in service anymore.
However, over the past years, the quick evolution of the “Low Boom” technologies, combined with the emergence of ambitious industrial projects indicate that a second era for “environmentally friendly” super-sonic commercial flights is about to happen.
Actually, the question is not if this second era will happen, but how and when it will.
To answer this question, one essential obstacle to clear is of course the elaboration of a new international regulation that would allow supersonic flights over land. Much effort is currently ongoing in a dedicated working group (WG1 / SSTG ) at ICAO to progress towards this regulation.
Over the past 10 years though, the European presence in this central organization has been quite weak, leaving the lead, both scientifically and industrially, to the US players (NASA, Gulfstream, Lockheed-Martin …) with some contributions from Japan (JAXA).
In the perspective of this new supersonic era opening up, it is now essential that European and Russian play-ers come back into the race:
• to avoid a “regulation driven monopoly” to the sole benefit of the American aircraft industry,
• to prepare Europe to take part in an international demonstration program from the very start
• to ensure our competitiveness in this to-be market.
The high level objective of RUMBLE is to support the European contribution to a regulatory standard for low sonic boom at the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organisation, on an equal footing with other key countries.
To reach this high level objective, RUMBLE addresses the following scientific and technological objectives:
• To develop advanced numerical models and tools to predict the boom generation, its propagation through the atmosphere and the induced building vibratory response.
• To provide quantitative information on the human response to outdoor and indoor low sonic boom.
• To identify relevant flight procedures and instrumentation for low boom impact assessment.
• To provide recommendations for a future low boom flying demonstrator.
• To produce recommendations for future low boom standards.
