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Lockheed L-2000
The Lockheed L-2000 was Lockheed Corporation's entry in a government-funded competition to build the United States' first supersonic airliner in the 1960s. The L-2000 lost the contract to the Boeing 2707, but that competing design was ultimately canceled for political, environmental and economic reasons.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the government to subsidize 75% of the development of a commercial airliner to compete with the Anglo-French Concorde then under development. The director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Najeeb Halaby, elected to improve on the Concorde's design rather than compete head-to-head with it. The SST, which might have represented a significant advance over the Concorde, was intended to carry 250 passengers (a large number at the time, more than twice as many as the Concorde), fly at Mach 2.7-3.0, and have a range of 4,000 mi (7,400 km).
The program was launched on June 5, 1963, and the FAA estimated that by 1990 there would be a market for 500 SSTs. Boeing, Lockheed, and North American officially responded. North American's design was soon rejected, but the Boeing and Lockheed designs were selected for further study.
Most of the major US aviation firms spent at least some time in the 1950s considering SST designs. Lockheed's first attempts date to 1958. Lockheed sought an airplane with cruise speeds of around 2,000 miles per hour (3,200 km/h) with takeoff and landing speeds that compared to large subsonic jets of the same era.
Early designs followed Lockheed's tapered straight wing, similar to the one used on the F-104 Starfighter, with a delta-shaped canard for aerodynamic trim. During wind-tunnel tests, this design demonstrated substantial shifts in the airplane's center of pressure (C/L). These would require large trim changes as the aircraft changed speed, causing trim drag.
A delta wing was substituted which alleviated a portion of the movement, but it was not deemed sufficient. Lockheed knew a variable geometry, swing-wing design could accomplish this goal, but felt it was too heavy:[citation needed] they preferred a fixed-wing solution. In a worst-case scenario, they were willing to design a fixed-wing aircraft using fuel for ballast.
By 1962, Lockheed arrived at a highly swept, cranked-arrow design featuring four engine pods buried in the wings and a canard. The improvement was closer to their goal, but still not optimal.
By 1963, they extended the leading edge of the wing forward to eliminate the need for the canard, and re-shaped the wing into a double-delta shape with a mild twist and camber. This, along with careful shaping of the fuselage, was able to control the shift in the center of pressure caused by the highly swept forward part of the wing developing lift supersonically. The engines were shifted from being buried in the wings to individual pods slung below the wings.
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Lockheed L-2000
The Lockheed L-2000 was Lockheed Corporation's entry in a government-funded competition to build the United States' first supersonic airliner in the 1960s. The L-2000 lost the contract to the Boeing 2707, but that competing design was ultimately canceled for political, environmental and economic reasons.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed the government to subsidize 75% of the development of a commercial airliner to compete with the Anglo-French Concorde then under development. The director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Najeeb Halaby, elected to improve on the Concorde's design rather than compete head-to-head with it. The SST, which might have represented a significant advance over the Concorde, was intended to carry 250 passengers (a large number at the time, more than twice as many as the Concorde), fly at Mach 2.7-3.0, and have a range of 4,000 mi (7,400 km).
The program was launched on June 5, 1963, and the FAA estimated that by 1990 there would be a market for 500 SSTs. Boeing, Lockheed, and North American officially responded. North American's design was soon rejected, but the Boeing and Lockheed designs were selected for further study.
Most of the major US aviation firms spent at least some time in the 1950s considering SST designs. Lockheed's first attempts date to 1958. Lockheed sought an airplane with cruise speeds of around 2,000 miles per hour (3,200 km/h) with takeoff and landing speeds that compared to large subsonic jets of the same era.
Early designs followed Lockheed's tapered straight wing, similar to the one used on the F-104 Starfighter, with a delta-shaped canard for aerodynamic trim. During wind-tunnel tests, this design demonstrated substantial shifts in the airplane's center of pressure (C/L). These would require large trim changes as the aircraft changed speed, causing trim drag.
A delta wing was substituted which alleviated a portion of the movement, but it was not deemed sufficient. Lockheed knew a variable geometry, swing-wing design could accomplish this goal, but felt it was too heavy:[citation needed] they preferred a fixed-wing solution. In a worst-case scenario, they were willing to design a fixed-wing aircraft using fuel for ballast.
By 1962, Lockheed arrived at a highly swept, cranked-arrow design featuring four engine pods buried in the wings and a canard. The improvement was closer to their goal, but still not optimal.
By 1963, they extended the leading edge of the wing forward to eliminate the need for the canard, and re-shaped the wing into a double-delta shape with a mild twist and camber. This, along with careful shaping of the fuselage, was able to control the shift in the center of pressure caused by the highly swept forward part of the wing developing lift supersonically. The engines were shifted from being buried in the wings to individual pods slung below the wings.
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