Aerion Corporation was an American

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

based in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. It was founded by

Robert Bass Robert Muse Bass (born 19 March 1948) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He was the chairman of Aerion Corporation, an American aerospace firm in Reno, Nevada. In 2018 he had a net worth of $5 billion. Bass has served on ...

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. From 2004 until 2021, the company was developing a 10-passenger supersonic jet to cut

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...

s by three hours using "boomless cruise" technology to negate the

sonic boom A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to t ...

. It was expected to be the first supersonic aircraft without an

afterburner An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and comba ...

to lower emissions, and the first to run on biofuels. Aerion abruptly announced on May 21, 2021 that the company would be shutting down due to inability to raise needed capital to proceed.

History

Aerion Corporation was founded in 2003 by Texas billionaire

as a startup working to commercialize supersonic aviation technology. The company began development on

supersonic business jet A supersonic business jet (SSBJ) is a business jet travelling above the speed of sound: a supersonic aircraft. Some manufacturers are designing or have been designing SSBJs, but none are currently available. Usually intended to transport about t ...

s in 2004. Increased demand from a variety of aircraft manufacturers for Aerion’s

natural laminar flow Boundary layer control refers to methods of controlling the behaviour of fluid flow boundary layers. It may be desirable to reduce flow separation on fast vehicles to reduce the size of the wake (streamlining), which may reduce drag. Boundary l ...

(NLF) expertise drove the company to launch Aerion Technologies Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary, in May 2011. Aerion stated that the same proprietary technologies and design tools that enable a practical supersonic business jet also have subsonic and transonic applications. During the previous 10 years, Aerion had developed extensive NLF test data and methods for optimizing its application to aircraft design, as well as assuring practical manufacturing and operational use. Aerion Technologies’ NLF technology and design tools may also help airframe builders improve speed and efficiency limits for next-generation civil and military aircraft. In May 2015, Ernest Edwards, formerly president of

Embraer Embraer S.A. () is a Brazilian multinational aerospace manufacturer that produces commercial, military, executive and agricultural aircraft, and provides aeronautical services. It was founded in 1969 in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, where i ...

Executive Jets, was appointed Aerion’s chief commercial officer, while previous

Gulfstream G650 The Gulfstream G650 is a large business jet produced by Gulfstream Aerospace.

chief engineer Mike Hinderberger was promoted to senior vice president for aircraft development. In March 2018, Tom Vice, former president of

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

's Aerospace Systems sector, was appointed President and COO. A year later, Vice also replaced

as Chairman of the Board upon the announcement of a partnership between

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

and Aerion. In April 2020, the company announced the construction of a $375 million production facility at the

Melbourne Orlando International Airport Melbourne Orlando International Airport is a public airport northwest of downtown Melbourne, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, and 50 miles southeast of Orlando, located on central Florida's Space Coast. The airport is reached by N ...

and the relocation of its headquarters to the Aerion Park campus, with the hopes of the first commercial delivery of planes by 2027. Aerion began development on

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

capabilities for its AS2 jet through

direct air capture Direct air capture (DAC) is a process of capturing carbon dioxide () directly from the ambient air (as opposed to capturing from point sources, such as a cement factory or biomass power plant) and generating a concentrated stream of for seques ...

in a 2020 deal with

Carbon Engineering Carbon Engineering Ltd. is a Canadian-based clean energy company focusing on the commercialization of Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere. This captured can either be stored underg ...

. In July 2020, Aerion partnered with Jetex to establish travel arrangements for AS2 passengers. On May 21, 2021, at the time of its collapse, the company had 93 orders for the AS2 aircraft at a price of US$120 million, a backlog of $11.2 billion. Aerion had only a fraction of the US$4 billion it estimated would be needed to complete

certification Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

and commence production. The company said the customer deposits would be returned. In June 2021, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun explained why it stopped supporting Aerion, stating that he asked, "is it going to be big enough and meaningful enough to Boeing? And maybe not just in terms of share of market and service market but also in terms of return on capital? And does it bring any technology to our existing core business? And if it doesn't, then it's got to really stand on its own … And our decision on supersonic was that it didn't."

Projects

Aerion SBJ

The

Aerion SBJ The Aerion SBJ was a supersonic business jet project designed by American firm Aerion Corporation. Unveiled in 2004, the designer sought a joint venture with a business aircraft manufacturer for a $1.2–1.4 billion development in 7–8 years. ...

was a

project designed by Aerion. Unveiled in 2004, the designer sought a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with a

business aircraft Business aircraft are aircraft typically used by companies and corporations to transport people or goods related to the needs of said businesses. Most business aircraft are general aviation aircraft variants of piston or turboprop or busin ...

manufacturer anticipating a $1.2–1.4 billion development in 7–8 years. Aerion received 50

letters-of-intent A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a heads of agreement, term she ...

before enlarging the design as the

Aerion AS2 The Aerion AS2 was a proposed supersonic business jet that was being developed by Aerion Corporation. In May 2014, it was announced that the Aerion AS2 would be part of a larger Aerion SBJ redesign, which aimed for release after a seven-year de ...

in 2014. Powered by two

Pratt & Whitney JT8D The Pratt & Whitney JT8D is a low-bypass (0.96 to 1) turbofan engine introduced by Pratt & Whitney in February 1963 with the inaugural flight of the Boeing 727. It was a modification of the Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojet engine which powered th ...

-219 engines, the $80 million aircraft would transport 8-12 passengers up to Mach 1.6 and up to .

Aerion AS2

The

was announced in May 2014, as a larger

redesign, targeting introduction after a seven year development period. Aerion initially partnered with

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...

on the project in September 2014. In December 2017, Airbus was replaced as a partner by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

. Its

General Electric Affinity The General Electric Affinity was a turbofan developed by GE Aviation for supersonic transports. Launched in May 2017 to power the Aerion AS2 supersonic business jet, its initial design was completed in 2018 before its detailed design in 2020 fo ...

engine for the AS2 was unveiled in October 2018. In February 2019,

replaced Lockheed Martin as a partner. The 12 passenger aircraft aimed for Mach 1.4 with a supersonic natural

laminar flow In fluid dynamics, laminar flow is characterized by fluid particles following smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mi ...

wing for a minimum projected range of 4,750 nm (8,800 km). It was designed to have flown at just below the sound barrier while flying over land in order to comply with supersonic flight restrictions. A $4 billion development cost was anticipated, for a market for 300 aircraft over 10 years and 500 aircraft overall, at $120 million each. A preliminary design review was delayed until 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Aerion had projected a $40 billion market for the AS2 with a $3.18 billion order backlog from companies such as

Flexjet Flexjet is an American provider of fractional ownership aircraft, leasing, and jet card services. Founded in 1995 as a division of Bombardier Aerospace, it is currently owned by Directional Aviation, an aviation private investment firm. Backgro ...

and discussions for orders valued at another $6.2 billion.

Aerion AS3

Aerion announced, in March 2021, a 50 seat hypersonic Mach 4 airliner project aimed to achieve a range of . The company targeted commercial availability by 2029.

References

External links

* {{Aerion aircraft Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Reno, Nevada