One of the most critical regulatory issues related to supersonic flight arises from limitations imposed by community noise acceptability. The most efficient way to ensure that future supersonic aircraft will meet low-noise requirements is the verification of noise emissions from the early stages of the design process. Therefore, this paper suggests guidelines for the Landing and Take-Off (LTO) noise assessment of future civil supersonic aircraft in conceptual design. The supersonic aircraft noise model is based on the semi-empirical equations employed in the early versions of the Aircraft NOise Prediction Program (ANOPP) developed by NASA, whereas sound attenuation due to atmospheric absorption has been considered in accordance with SAE ARP 866 B. The simulation of the trajectory leads to the prediction of the aircraft noise level on ground in terms of several acoustic metrics (LAmax, SEL, PNLTM and EPNL). Therefore, a dedicated validation has been performed, selecting the only available supersonic aircraft of the Aircraft Noise and Performance database (ANP), that is, the Concorde, through the matching with Noise Power Distance (NPD) curves for LAmax and SEL, obtaining a maximum prediction error of ±2.19%. At least, an application to departure and approach procedures is reported to verify the first noise estimations with current noise requirements defined by ICAO at the three certification measurement points (sideline, flyover, approach) and to draw preliminary considerations for future low-noise supersonic aircraft design.

The design of integrated and highly efficient solutions for thermal management is a key capability for different aerospace products, ranging from civil aircraft using hydrogen on board to miniaturized satellites. In particular, this paper discloses a novel numerical tool for the design and thermal performance assessment of heat pipes. To achieve this goal, a numerical Ansys Parametric Design Language code is set up to verify the effective subtractive heat flux guaranteed by the selected heat pipe arrangement. The methodology and related tool show their ability to provide good thermal performance estimates for different heat pipe designs and operating conditions. Specifically, the paper reports two very different test cases: (1) solid metal heat pipes to cool down the crotch leading-edge area of the air intake of a Mach 8 civil passenger aircraft, and (2) a copper-water heat pipe to cool down a Printed Circuit Board of a generic small LEO satellite. The successful application of the methodology and numerical code confirms the achievement of the ambitious goal of developing in-house tools to support heat pipe thermal performance prediction for the entire aerospace domain.