Dr. Dmitry Strelets
Ph.D. of Technical Science (Aircraft Design Engineering) at Moscow Aviation Institute
Research Interest: Design and certification of aviation technology, mathematical  modeling, optimization of complex technical systems.

Speech Title: Global challenges for supersonic aviation

Abstract: Since the beginning of mass air transportation, airlines have striven to get passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible. And the passengers were willing to pay for it, because time is the only nonrenewable resources of mankind. It seemed to be in the early 70s. of the last century, this problem was solved - the first supersonic passenger aircraft was launched to air. But they never became a mass means of transport, faced with economic, environmental problems, and difficulty in maintenance. Nevertheless, aircraft manufacturers are vigorously striving to solve this problem. Evidence of this is a new round in work on second-generation supersonic passenger aircraft, noted in the past few years. Work on such projects is being carried out on both sides of the ocean - both in the USA, Europe, and in Russia. The reasons for the renewed interest in supersonic passenger aircraft are as follows:

• unprecedented in the history growth of mobility of the population. If in 1970 aircraft carried 500 million passengers, in 1995 - 2.5 billion passengers, then in 2018 - already 4.3 billion people. The number of flights per person per year has grown from 0.1 to 0.6 in less than half a century. Most economists that in the early 2030s, despite the consequences of the epidemic, on average, each inhabitant of the Earth will make one flight a year;
• changes in economic geography have increased the length of flights: traffic is shifting in the Asia-Pacific region, due to increase air travel between the old countries – Europe and USA and new centers of East Asia. From 1995 to 2018 the number of air passengers increased by 70%, the number of passenger-kilometers - more than 2.5 times. Thus, the average flight range increased by more than 1.5 times;
• the growth of the "upper middle class" and its prosperity create effective demand for time-saving technologies;
• technological progress allows you to create more economical than the first generation of supersonic passenger aircraft , prototypes complying with existing legal restrictions.

The main problems of creating a new generation supersonic passenger aircraft  are:

• lack of international standards for permissible levels of sonic boom when flying over populated areas and supersonic noise on the ground in the airport area;
• lack of reliable knowledge on the physics of the propagation of low-intensity boom waves in the real atmosphere and, if possible, achieving an acceptable level of sonic boom under the flight course for the population;
• lack of ready-to-use power plants that provide the required flight range and permissible noise level in the airport area;
• difficult compromise between high performance and low environmental impact;
• level of performance required to achieve high competitiveness cannot be implemented on the basis of traditional technical solutions and technologies and requires the development of a unique aircraft technical configuration.

To respond to these and other challenges of creating a second-generation of supersonic passenger aircarft in Russia, a world-class scientific center "Supersonic" was created. The main goal of the «Supersonic» center is the formation of a russian base of fundamental knowledge necessary for the development of key technologies of a supersonic passenger aircraft. The main activities of the center are defined: aerodynamics and conceptual design of supersonic passenger aircraft with low sonic boom, aeroacoustics and vibrations, strength and intelligent structures, gas dynamics and power plants, artificial intelligence and flight safety. In addition to MAI, the consortium includes leading scientific and educational centers of the country: Institute of Applied Mathematics named after M.V. Keldysh, Russian Academia of Science, Central Institute of Aviation Motors, State Research Institute of Aviation Systems,  Moscow State University, Perm Federal Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The ideologist of the creation and coordinator of the work of the center is the Central Institute of Aerohydrodynamics «TSAGI».

The creation of a supersonic aircraft is, first of all, a solution to a number of fundamental problems of modern aviation science. And all this, ultimately, in the name of achieving a new qualitative level of aviation mobility and the undeniable advantages that flight at supersonic speed promises - the speed of transcontinental transportation, and, of course, the comfort of passengers. Finding out and comparing the balance of all advantages and disadvantages is not an easy task, and it is not solved in one day. I hope that our reports and a lively discussion on topical issues related to the formation of the technological basis for the aircraft of the future will be of interest to the participants of the ICASSE 2023 conference, and especially to those who plan to connect their lives with aviation in the future.

Short-bio: Profound knowledge in each aircraft engineering area; successfully realized 15 + innovative projects; academic supervisor for Ph.D. candidates ; key speaker at international conferences and Airspace Science Weeks (PRC, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Italy) ; development of academic syllabuses for master degree students ; taught 50 + seminars to over 500 students in «Aircraft design»; more then 25 years of experience in world Top 5 Design Bureaus (MiG, Sukhoi)  

Education and Credentials:

• Deputy Head of the Design & Research Scientific Center at the Sukhoi design Bureau;

• Head of Research and Development Department of MAI ( on charge on more then 300 engineers );

• Director of World Class Scientific Center «Supersonic»;

• Deputy Head of Mathematical Modeling Center;

• PhD of Technical Sciences;

• Honorable Aircraft Engineer 2018;

• Author of more than 100 published scientific papers.