Performance Requirements for Supersonic Transports

Influences on design of the performance requirements of various mission segments are indicated, based in part on experience gained in the XB-70 program. In particular, the requirements that size the powerplant and wing are discussed.

Various operational and emergency aspects are examined in order to define their severity and possible procedures and systems to cope with them.

It is shown that performance requirements will exert great pressure toward incorporation of variable geometry features in the supersonic transport configuration.