Journal Article

Sonic Boom Impact Assessment of European SST Concept for Milan to New York Supersonic Flight

Glorioso, Antimo, Barbarino, Mattia, Federico, Luigi, Petrosino, Francesco, Fasulo, Giovanni

2025

Overview

This study presents a surrogate modeling framework designed for the rapid yet reliable assessment of sonic boom impacts. The methodology is demonstrated through two case studies: a transatlantic flight from Milan to New York, highlighting the sonic boom impact along the route; and a representative supersonic overflight of Italy, quantifying the population exposure to varying noise levels. Aerodynamic numerical simulations were carried out using an open-source code to capture near-field pressure signatures at three critical mission points. These signatures were used to compute the Whitham F-functions, which were then propagated through a homogeneous atmosphere to the ground using the Whitham equal area rule. The resulting N-waves enabled the computation of aircraft shape factors, which were employed in a regression model to predict the sonic boom characteristics across the full mission profile. Finally, the integration of noise metrics and geographical information system software provided the evaluation of environmental impact and population noise exposure.

• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Subject: Aircraft / Aviation / computational fluid dynamics / Design / Fluid dynamics / Fourier transforms / Geographic information systems / Noise levels / population impact / Propagation / Regression models / Shape factor / signature propagation / Signatures / Simulation / sonic boom / Sonic booms / Source code / Supersonic flight / Whitham theory