Trajectory Optimization for Boom-Minimizing Supersonic Transport over the Continental U.S.

Supersonic transport has been an active field of aviation research since the 1950s, and its commercialization culminated in the Anglo-French airliner, the Concorde. Due to unsustainable operation costs and the sonic booms emanating along the path, supersonic transports have retreated from the forefront of research since the Concorde’s decommission. The annoyance caused by sonic booms further prompted the FAA to prohibit all overland civil flights over Mach 1. However, recent resurgence in SST projects such as NASA’s QueSST project and its experimental aircraft X-59 is set to employ a boom-minimization configuration and to re-evaluate the prospects of overland supersonic flights. In light of this advancement, a trajectory optimization framework that minimizes perceived boom along the path, tailored to supersonic in-land flights, is developed. An optimal control problem combining a sonic boom propagation model, the population distribution of the continental U.S., and a noise measure based on Perceived Level decibels is formulated and solved numerically via GPOPS-II. Two trajectories over the continental U.S. based on this framework are illustrated and aim to provide insights into future supersonic transport design, regulations, as well as air-traffic management.