SUPERCRUISE

Supercruise

Supercruise is sustained supersonic flight of an aircraft with a useful cargo, passenger, or weapons load performed efficiently and without the use of afterburners.

Due to its combination of decades long scheduled service and length of time spent at supersonic speeds, the main user of supercruise has been Concorde, with more time spent in supercruise flight than all of the other aircraft put together.

Advantages

Most military aircraft use Afterburners (reheat) to travel at supersonic speeds. Afterburners are inefficient compared to conventional jet engine operation due to the low pressures typically found in the exhaust section. Therefore an aircraft that can supercruise has generally greater endurance at supersonic speeds than one which cannot. Furthermore, without a requirement to carry such a large quantity of fuel, a supercruise-capable aircraft can have a more favorable fuel fraction, the proportion of the plane's overall mass which is devoted to fuel. Supercruise also increases the aircraft's stealth, as an afterburner plume reflects radar signals and creates a significant infra-red signature.

Aircraft with supercruise

JAS 39 Gripen, F-4 'Super' Phantom II,F-14D Super Tomcat[citation needed] F-22 Raptor F-104 Starfighter,YF-23 Black Widow II XB-70 Valkyrie