Spike Aerospace, about which I know approximately nothing, wants to build a Mach 1.6 SSBJ known as the S-512. For a SSBJ, it’s a fairly conventional design. However, what’s getting it some press is the idea that it won’t have any passenger compartment windows; instead, it will have a long window-like high-def display strip which will show an external view.
While it looks spiffy in the PR art… unless this display is some sort of sci-fi holographic display, it will looks distinctly “off” compared to a real window. If you are up front, for example, and you look out the “window” well aft, rather than showing you a view looking aft, it will show you a view looking off to the side.
Someday I imagine materials tech will be such that an actual window strip can be made for pressurized aircraft. And that… will be odd.
If the computer generated artwork on their site is anything to go by (and it may not be), the design does not seem to be very far advanced. The landing gear, for example… yeesh. Span is 60 feet, length 131 feet; 12 to 18 passengers; cruises at Mach 1.6, dash at Mach 1.8; MTOW = 84,000 lbs; engines, 2 P&W JT8D; range 4000 nautical miles. There are a few sonic boom-fighting elements… long nose, engines hidden above the fuselage, reduced number of surfaces. But it remains to be seen if the FAA would allow supersonic overflight of land areas in the US.
