Thermodynamically, using the RAM effect: air flowing into the intake at high speed compresses, heating it to a temperature that produces thrust. AFG and ARFG cruise speed of Mach 7.4 can yield 70% of the total required thrust from compressive heating, reducing the amount of fuel required to power the aircraft. Effectively, the Ram effect recycles speed into thrust.

The air at the Neecenow cruise height is extremely thin, meaning there is no turbulence or convection interference for the autopilot to overcome. This leads to fewer control inputs by the aircrafts autopilot system, over less flight time, reducing drag and fuel burn. There is also less inertia at higher altitude due to the thinner air producing less drag.

The aerodynamic flow of the shockwave at hypersonic velocity can be used to produce lift. By designing the aircraft to use the shockwave compression-lift increases the amount of lift, so the aircraft needs less lift to maintain level flight, the effect is like flying down hill or riding a wave. This reduces the required thrust and the amount of fuel burnt to maintain cruise speed.

» Shock wave reduction

The sonic boom is an effect produced by an aircraft travelling faster than the speed of sound. The transition of a supersonic aircraft produces a layer of air that produces a moment of over-pressure, heard as a boom.

Different aspects affect the strength of the sonic boom. These are both from atmospheric differences, aerodynamic differences to the aircraft, and how the aircraft is being manoeuvred. Sonic booms were found to exist at altitudes of above 70,000ft, so intensive design work has been completed to reduce the J2000 and AFG shockwaves to limit the chances of any audible boom being heard from the ground, or, if so, it is as distant thunder. The lack of atmosphere from the 100,000ft minimum cruising altitude up to 150,000ft will also reduce the shockwave effects, because the waves have further to travel to get to the ground, with transitions through atmospheric layers distorting and depleting strength.

At speed Neecenow shockwave angle is narrow meaning the cone has to use more force and distance reach the ground, reducing the intensity of any boom heard on the ground. Neecenow cruise altitudes increases the distance to earth also increases by a minimum 10 kilometres over formerly tested altitudes. 10 kilometres, in terms of a count measuring the lightning bolts distance, is 30 seconds: generally not audible.

Transition phases are kept over the sea or remote areas and flight manoeuvres are computer limited to a fixed maximum angle of attack so as not to compress and intensify shockwaves. AFG and the ARFG airliners as well as the J2000 HYT have been designed to reduce shockwave intensity, by reducing the N-wave, a measure of the amplitude or intensity of the shockwave reflections produced by the wings and fuselage by stretching and distorting the shockwave in ways that break it down. This is comparable to how Stealth aircraft reduce radar reflection. Although there is a drag increase in designing out the N-wave it is necessary feature of any Super or Hypersonic airliner and operating in the thin atmosphere at high altitude negates such penalties.

Neecenow airliners will operationally climb out at speeds below Mach 1.2 or less to high altitude before accelerating to cruise speed. At Mach 1.2 or less, shock waves causing an audible sonic boom do not reach the ground. During transition to and from hypersonic speed where there is higher chances of shock waves reaching the ground in certain conditions, flight will be conducted within a location known as the Supersonic Transition area, set in remote areas, over water or deserts away from city populations and busy airports. Several other ways of reducing the super and hypersonic boom effect include using a special shaped nose cone to stretch and distort a circular boom forming. BAT will also consider integrating Gulfstream Aerospace’s extendable nose probe design should it prove viable. This patented design has shown to reduce supersonic boom intensity by over 20%.

Once the Neecenow is prototyped, test flight will obtain guidelines for operation and allow modifications to improve performances, leading to lower boom intensity and lower drag. Every consideration to reduce the sonic boom is being undertaken as in many countries supersonic flight is illegal. Although a loophole exists for hypersonic flight, it is best Neecenow obtains an amendment to such laws, rather than the alternative deviations. AFG flight can still occur with a total ban on overland hypersonic flight, by transitioning via the Poles and Mexico almost as fast as direct flights. The majority of flights will be over oceans already, and controlled further with Supersonic transition areas.

» Supersonic Transition areas

The sonic boom is most likely from Neecenow in its transition between Mach 1.2 and Mach 7.4. BAT has developed areas of land, present around any international airport, even in Europe. These are known as Supersonic Transition areas, to be located around 50-100km away from city airports in sparsely populated regions. These will relieve the city population of any possible sonic boom activity which might be heard in unusual weather circumstances. The other main purpose is to safely and efficiently slow the Neecenow to a speed able to join with subsonic aircraft in an airport traffic pattern.

The actual descent of the Neecenow will be arriving at the Supersonic Transition area above 50,000ft and Mach 1.2. At this speed the sonic boom is not audible on the ground. The descent and deceleration will continue to the destination direct, turning as or if required. Thunder is not generally audible from over a ten kilometre distance, having a fifty kilometre buffer will mean population is not affected by ARFG and AFG’s transitions to and from hypersonic flight.

» Time zone departure times

One of the biggest drawbacks to hypersonic flight is the effect of time zones on departure and arrival times. Common thought has it that a 3 hour flight is excellent, but the problems occur within the standard acceptable curfew times at major cities of 6AM to 6PM, though some departures later in the evening are accepted. Problems apply particularly to airports with a 12 hour difference. 

If the noise exceeds legal night time departure requirements Neecenow flights will only be able to arrive and depart at certain times due to the differences of time at both destinations. The time in London is 6AM, the earliest a departure could take place due to curfew times; it will arrive in Sydney at 7PM, too late for a 6 PM curfew. This means the only time slot available would be in the afternoon between 4PM and 6PM. This complicates flight slot development process and airport congestion if the engine competition yields a noisy power plant, flight to and from other nations would have to be placed elsewhere to minimise arrival and departure loads. This is why BAT is taking every consideration with noise issues, so that night departures will be approved.

Even if the power plant and airframe combination allows night flights, the time zone problems do bring complications. For example, Departing at 7PM Beijing time allows arrival in New York by Neecenow by 8AM New York time (the date before, due to the International dateline).  If 5 hours is taken for customs and a few hours for transit both ways and the meeting, it is possible for a business person to get back to Beijing by 10am the next day. This means a sleepless night, but important meetings can occur. The alternative is a 14 hour flight, meeting, then another 14 hour flight, which is much more draining, particularly in a dry environment aboard an airliner.

» Economic sectors opened via Neecenow

The introduction of the Neecenow may be thought limited by curfew considerations mentioned above, although the initial of future variants of Neecenow, depending upon the engine noise results, may permit operation at night. The introduction of a transport where the most distant location is only three hours travel away, introduces the prospect of time-zone based economic communities.

Presently many countries have people who commute for longer than four hours per day, and with changes and improvements to airports current standards such as those already in place with first class check in, workers could travel across the equator to link up business expertise in design, management, construction and other beneficial elements to enhance businesses and return the same day.

This means North American, including the United States, Canada and Mexico become greater business partners with the countries in South America; China and Japan become greater business partners with South East Asia and Australia; India and Sri Lanka with Russia and Europe and the Middle East with Africa. These sectors can also triangulate to provide China with India, and Europe with South America and other combinations.

Although it may appear linking a wealthy country to a poorer one may be detrimental to the wealthier nation, it must be remembered poorer people require more commodities; if they had the money they would buy more, making wealthy business owners in wealthy nations wealthier. Lower GDP nations usually have lower average incomes, reducing the average annual wage which is a large component of production and manufacturing costs. Combining the business expertise available with Neecenow, and the low cost, high speed freight available form the Tronolog, creates wealth for all.

» Physical physics

Neecenow will cruise at a speed of Mach 7.4; equivalent to just over 9000 km/hr or 2.5 kilometres per second. Temperature at the nose cone at this speed will be around over 1000ºC; inside it will be a pleasant, “shirt sleeve” temperature - a beautiful 22ºC. The peak temperatures re experienced only at the nose cone and certain areas of the leading edges of wings and tail, other surfaces are much cooler. Firemen and woman sustain temperatures up to and over 1200ºC several times a week with less than half an inch of protective cloth keeping out this heat, some of it to bare skin and for extended periods. AFG and ARFG are essentially designed to be like submarines; instead of water the design keeps heat out of the interior, including the wheel wells and control areas.

Neecenow’s acceleration curves are gradual and barely perceptible, with a computer controlled ride-slope, accelerating at a comfortable rate, about the same as a family car accelerating to the speed limit. Deceleration will be at a similar sustained rate will hard to notice physically. 

Briggs Aerospace Technologies completed the most intensive study of high altitude depressurisation ever conducted before progressing with its hypersonic airliner programme beyond the concept stage. The possibility if a depressurisation incident at hypersonic speed and altitude was a daunting prospect. By limiting the cruise speed to Mach 7.4 and at altitudes of up to 150,000 feet, BAT created a safety precedent in establishing the envelop to enable safe descent from cruise height and speed to be under 14,000ft and transonic speed within ninety seconds of any depressurisation emergency.

How does one decelerate from Mach 7.4 to subsonic speed to the safe altitude of under 14,000 feet in the short time of two minutes or less? The answer lies in the fact the high cruise speed of Neecenow is a true air-speed, not an indicated air-speed. At Neecenow cruise altitudes the air is so thin the relative airspeed in comparison to sea level is much less. This means the deceleration required even in an emergency is safe enough for similar to a family car, and thus safe enough for passengers of any age or fitness. At around a family cars maximum braking G, the aircraft can be at a safe speed and height in about one minute.

This is a fully automated procedure to ensure no euphoric effects of hypoxia prevent descent to safe altitude. The pilot reaction time required is too short to have a manual system. A smooth, minimal acceleration manoeuvre will take place simultaneously reducing speed through reducing the power and thrust to idle, and gently rolling turning and pitching while descending, the drag of which will reduce speed from the drag of the fuselage, known as an energy depleting manoeuvre. The contingency of being over water or a pole at low speed and possibly high fuel consumption has been made a notification and judgement factor in the hypersonic engine design programme.

Pressure monitoring equipment will be aboard in different locations to nearly instantly detect losses in air pressure, and these will be set at several levels of alert to avoid descent for any small leak. Seepage losses will be less than typical airliners due to the near windowless fuselage: pressurised air can escape through window seals. There will be several instruments at each location to provide redundancy from failure.

Passengers will have a lap-sash seatbelt restraint which will also boost safety during any other incidents. During depressurisation emergencies, the horizon reference in passenger portable television eyewear and any other entertainment or display screen will show the aircraft in level flight to help them remain calm. Emergency briefings will be screened to show the use of oxygen equipment, which the passengers will be alerted to. Standby power of these headsets will enable such briefings even if aircraft avionics is lost.

The meal delivery trolleys are being redesigned to prevent mishaps during depressurisation emergencies or turbulence. Internal pressure walls similar in concept to water tight doors will retain pressure in the aircraft, the pressurisation system only increasing effort in the breached section. The fuselage lining is hoped to form a retardant to plug leaks similar to how self-sealing fuel tanks work, forming another redundancy to this rare event. The cabin will have dividers to limit the amount of pressurised air lost during a hull breach.

The Neecenow hypersonic airliners have foundation in the century's experience of aerospace design, so much so as the AFG and ARFG are likely to be the safest aircraft to ever fly.

» Build cost

ARFG, AFG and the J2000 programmes will share technology to lower overall production costs including various composites in the skin and fabrication of the aircraft incorporating a similar configuration.

Materials and equipment that will isolate the passengers and crew from the external environment, such as heat and radiation can be co-developed. Production costs of all three types kept is reasonably cheap, despite the technology leap and particularly with high cycle rates or numbers of flights considered.  Purchase costs and expected to be around $600 million for the ARFG, each, and $220 million for the AFG, each. This figure matches or betters the total cost of the average number of subsonic these types replace, excluding the fuel, crew and multitude of other cost savings the type offers once in service.

» Power plants

BAT has launched the richest design programme in world history to produce up to 3 different power plants options for Neecenow from money obtained mainly from the J2000 HYT syndicate portion sales. These engines will power all three types of air and spacecraft, meaning the actual development cost is relatively cheap.

Even equipped with Scramjets, depending on the distance flown, AFG and ARFG will likely use up to 70% less fuel than current types, a significant benefit to the atmosphere and greenhouse emissions. BAT’s competition ensures the most efficient, cheapest to buy and operate, lightest and most powerful air and spacecraft engine ever built, is found.

» Medical benefits

Hypersonic flight will benefit the medical world; presently most transplant organs have “lives” of around 5 hours from donation. This means vital organs for transplant patients are generally restricted within national borders. Neecenow is only 3 hours flying time away, at most, permitting organs to be taken to and from the airport and arrive in time for transplant surgery, from anywhere in the world permitting a global organ waiting list reducing patient waiting times.

Hypersonic flight ends potentially fatal venous thrombo-embolisms, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolus; basically blood clots, particularly in older people, known to form in veins during long seated times with fatal consequences. The risk of this occurring doubles after four-seated hours, with AFG and ARFG maximum flight duration 3 hours.   

» History

BAT started 19 years ago as a lobbying agenda for a supersonic type for the high capacity subsonic market. This became totally design orientated after discovery of a configuration able to transcend barriers to the new generation of airliner; such as capacity, take-off and landing distances and ability to use current infrastructure and facilities, a design easy and cheap to produce. The concept was explored and became the initially supersonic J2000 programme, leading to the BAT of today. Resolving decompression facets permitted the go-ahead into the hypersonic era with the AFG and ARFG, with the J2000 standard retained for the HYT Space transport.

Hypersonic flight allows Atlantic and Pacific journeys in just over an hour: including climb, descent, and ILS approach and taxi times. Speed reduces required endurance or fuel load, decreasing weight and improving performances. A lack of atmosphere at cruise altitude overcomes en-route weather, headwinds, turbulence reducing drag, decreasing required thrust and fuel burn. Manufacturing costs are not much higher than a supersonic type. At hypersonic speeds, aerodynamic effects such as shockwave-riding - obtaining lift from the aircrafts own shock wave - and thermodynamics of the ram effect enable substantial efficiency gains.

Expansion of the main design platform was always considered: the original J2000 was earmarked to be a Space Shuttle replacement 13 years ago. The two programmes split after a few years as J2000’s supersonic cruise and smaller twin lead to too many differences in construction to permit the same design to be used. The ARFG design brought a joint design back into viability in 2006. The two programmes – Neecenow and HYT – were again one aircraft design, helping to improve construction viability - both AFG and ARFG airliners are subsidised by the HYT programme that has a greater budget. The Space industry expends many billions per year, and the saving HYT bring, in comparison to development cost justify this system.

The concept of not one but two new high speed jets of different capacities came in 1999, guaranteeing the market into the new era by making hypersonic speed conventional. Airlines use various sized aircraft, with preferences varying from airline to airline; some prefer smaller aircraft for those with less passengers or wanting more services; other airlines prefer big jets with lower costs and fewer flights. Developing a second aircraft that used the similar configuration as the main design enabled both markets; establishing performance, rather than it being a gimmick. Options give versatility and choice to a market, attracting more airlines to fast jets thus ensuring the rise, strength and transition from subsonic airliners to hypersonic. With the transition to the hypersonic Neecenau, two designs were decided upon to provide for the most popular airliner sizes for each primary market; AFG seats 200 people, and ARFG seats 400.

» Hypersonic Test range

The initial test range for Karaya test aircraft will be in Australia with two locations on each side of the coast, one being from where the Karaya’s are built. These take-off and recovery points are under final study.  

Locations all over the world are under being reviewed in a preliminary study for suitability to be used later in the test programme over long distances. A large remote distance over land is sort, with several runways to be built as required for emergency purposes under the route. Certain options include locations over several countries, such as Africa and Russia.

Hypersonic aircraft covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time; Australia will be crossed in about 20 minutes. Much longer flight durations over land are more desirable for a long range test programme. The long-range locations under consideration are:

1. Africa: North south range, though crosses many different countries.

2. Russia: This range would ideally go from Romania to Nome in Alaska, and is the longest under survey.

3. Chile: A mid-sized range though remote.

4. Brazil to San Diego: Another mid-sized range hindered by terrain and several countries.

These will be announced when the long range programme is about to begin.