Aircraft
Spike Laying Groundwork for Supersonic Bizjet
Company is completing enhanced study on performance
Spike Aerospace S-512  Diplomate (Image: Spike Aerospace)
Spike Aerospace is designing the S-512 Diplomat to travel Mach 1.6.

Spike Aerospace is refining the aerodynamics, cabin configuration, and lower-boom performance of its Mach 1.6 S-512 Diplomat as it lays the groundwork to bring a supersonic business jet to market. The company is completing what it calls an “enhanced study” that builds on previous research and design iterations to validate the aircraft’s ability to meet stringent noise requirements over land with low-boom capability.

“For the moment, most of the work is in computational fluid design (CFD) analysis and evaluation,” a company spokeswoman told AIN. “In the near future, we may conduct wind-tunnel studies for several critical areas of flight that are more difficult/less reliable to do in CFD.”