Aerion Supersonic and Spire Global, a space-powered Earth information company, are collaborating to support Aerion's Boomless Cruise technology for the AS2. Aerion will use Spire data and forecasting capabilities to facilitate the AS2 flying supersonically without delivering a sonic boom to ground level. In addition, Spire technology will also enable significant reduction in unwanted high-altitude contrails.

As an established provider of aviation weather and support services, Spire offers accurate weather tracking and predicting solutions through its proprietary constellation of satellites. Spire's weather capabilities will enable Aerion's AS2 to fly at supersonic speeds over land with no perceived noise on the ground. Spire Global will provide high fidelity weather models that will be coupled into Aerion's Boomless Cruise technology to compute an optimised flight plan where the AS2 can be flown at supersonic speeds.

“Aerion is building next generation technology to support future transportation needs with a sustainable environment firmly embedded in its business plan. This aligns 100 per cent not just with the technology but also the values of Spire,” says Spire Global CEO Peter Platzer. “We are excited to be supporting Aerion's mission with our data and predictive technology, allowing the company to increase fuel conservation, improve operational efficiencies, and reduce the environmental footprint.”

Spire's vertical weather model support services will include a medium range forecast model, short-range aviation weather forecasting capabilities and historical weather forecasts that will form a critical component of Aerion's boomless system that calculates optimised en-route flight planning. Aerion is the first commercial manufacturer to engineer the real-time capability to harness Mach cut-off, eliminating the sonic boom noise heard from the ground.

“Our partnership with Spire Global brings together the power of our two innovative companies to truly transform global mobility. Spire owns and operates one of the largest satellite constellations in the world, tracking and predicting the world's weather systems, and Aerion has designed the most advanced supersonic aircraft in history as well as the most advanced environmentally responsible business jet in history,” says Aerion chairman, president and CEO, Tom Vice.

“At Aerion we are deeply committed to our beliefs that new innovations must be kind to our planet and responsibly address the issues of noise and the impact of emissions on climate change. Through this partnership we will harness Spire's powerful understanding of weather conditions and predictive atmospheric data analytics to fly at supersonic speeds over land without the disturbance of the sonic boom and also predict the formation of contrails allowing us to flight plan accordingly and minimise the impact on our climate.”