Spike Building Team for Supersonic Jet

Boston-based Spike Aerospace has brought former Virgin Airlines group executive (CEO) John Thomas on board as it seeks to bring its supersonic jetliner to market. Thomas brings an extensive airline and business aviation background to his role of helping Spike realize its vision.

“Spike Aerospace’s vision for supersonic flight is tremendously compelling and ideally suited for all the major international airlines,” said Thomas, a commercial pilot who also has launched a regional airline and advised many top airlines and business and general aviation organizations, along with serving on the boards of directors of Icelandair and Sky Service. “The Spike Jet with a low-sonic boom, long range, and seating capacity will work well in airline operations. I’m looking forward to helping build relationships with major customers around the globe.”

Spike has outlined initial plans for a 12- to 18-passenger, Mach 1.6 jet—the S-512—that the company says will cut destination time by 40 percent while meeting Stage 5 noise compliance and offering low sonic boom over land. Plans call a 6,200-nm range that would be capable of connecting London to Hong Kong or Dubai to New York nonstop.

Unique to the S-512 is a windowless cabin that instead will be fitted with digital display views. Similar to a concept that NASA is exploring for the forward "window" of its X-59 X-plane, the S-512 “Multiplex Digital Cabin” will use multiple cameras to provide cabin-length panoramic views of the outside or offer passengers the ability to see movies, images, or presentations. The elimination of windows will reduce cabin noise by 20 dB, Spike estimates.

Spike has struck up collaborations with technology and engineering specialists including Siemens PLM Software, which specializes in product lifecycle management and manufacturing operations management software, to business jet completions provider Greenpoint Technologies and engineering services provider Quartus Engineering, among others.

Last year Spike Aerospace also retained Shreekant Agrawal, who has decades of engineering experience with companies including Northrop Grumman and Boeing, to serve as an executive advisor for his expertise in low-boom supersonic engineering.

Spike has conducted subsonic demonstrator flight tests of handling and range of the S-512 design and is targeting mid-2020s to have an aircraft developed.