A Fundamental Study for Aerodynamic Characteristics of Supersonic Biplane Wing and Wing-Body Configurations

In order to develop a quiet supersonic transport, it is necessary to reduce shock waves around the transport. Shock waves, in general, are the cause of the airplane's sonic boom. Authors have been studying an aerodynamic feasibility of supersonic biplanes based on the concept of the Busemann biplane. In this paper, the three dimensional effect of wing geometries on their wave drags, including wing tip effects and the interference effects between the wing and a body (Wing-Body configurations) are investigated, using CFD code in Euler (inviscid) mode. As a result, we can conclude that the supersonic biplane wings at their design Mach number (M∞=1.7) are still capable of reducing wave drag significantly similar to that of the 2-D supersonic biplane.