Preliminary evaluation and optimization of civil aircraft sonic-boom properties through Carlson's method

In this paper a simple approach based on the Carlson's method will be presented to define a supersonic conguration optimized in terms of sonic boom properties. The Carlson's method provides a simplified procedure for the calculation of sonic boom characteristics for supersonic airplane congurations and spacecrafts. The information required for the signature predictions are: aircraft shape factor KS, aircraft operating conditions and atmospheric data. Unfortunately, there is not an analytic expression of the shape factor. Nevertheless, a graphic representing the relationship between KS and parameters related to the aircraft geometry, can be used. In this paper KS have been approximated through a linear and a quadratic interpolation as a function of other parameters and its minimization problem has been formulated. Computational results show the optimal values to be assigned to the aircraft geometry parameters in order to obtain the minimal value of the shape factor and in consequence of the sonic boom overpressure.