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As the age of commercial flight took a firm grip of regional economics and governments in the 1960s, it was envisioned by many designers and planners that it wouldn't be long before customers with deeper pockets would wish to fly supersonically, for a premium. Both airlines and designers took note of this requirement, and work begun within AAe to design such an aircraft. As medium-long range transonic airliner with variable sweep wings, the AAe 7-11 was specifically designed to fly as fast as possible without producing a sonic boom, as it was equally envisioned that many countries would not welcome constant supersonic booms occuring within their airspace and unsettle their citizens.

Taking the lead in the effort, the 7-11 design was originally conceived around 1965 by Jiandān Aircraft Corporation’s Advanced Projects Group (later the Alteran Aerospace Advanced Projects Group). However, due to company merges, technical difficulties and technological limits, the first aircraft would not take flight until the late 1980s. It would only be until the early 21st Century when the 7-11 finally began to roll off the production line and into the hands of customers.

Design

The design for a supersonic aircraft to carry out passenger ferrying duties in airlines, as well as a multitude of roles within the military, had long been desired by both militaries and airliners for quite some time. Even during the early development of the jet engine in the 1930s and 1940s, both military and commercial enterprises could see the future potential; envisioning a future world with supersonic air travel at its core. However, the physics and practical reality would show that this dream wasn't entirely pheasible.

A supersonic design was specified as a request of the Alteran Air Defense Force, in order to carry out a multitude of roles, including; Maritime Patrol, Submarine Warfare, Electronic Warfare, Transportation and Air-to-Air Refueling. These requests were asking a lot of the Alteran aerospace industries who, at the time, had little experience in developing large sub-sonic aircraft; thus supersonic was thought to be a huge conceptual challenge. Meanwhile, the civilian markets were asking for an aircraft that could carry between 100 and 200 passengers as supersonic speeds.

Designers at the Jiandān Aircraft Corporation in the 1960s quickly found two major issues with supersonic aircraft. Firstly, their studies showed that the penalty for supersonic performance was a two-and-a-half times increase in All-Up Weight; which as far as the A.M.D.F. was concerned, was not acceptable for the Maritime Patrol variant. Secondly, it was found that civilian populated areas were not fond of sonic-booms; as many areas around the Ludlum Aerodrome - where a lot of supersonic studies were carried out - found their windows frequently shattering and some populations even complaining of damage to the foundation of their homes. Jiandān Aircraft Corporation's studies, and later Alteran Aerospace, concluded that an aircraft with variable geometry wings and a cruise speed of Mach 1.15 would produce a supersonic aircraft that mitigates the majority of issues; namely weight, range, payload and - most importantly - the lack of a sonic boom.

The basis of the aircraft study produced a design that was 160ft (48.8m) long with an unswept wingspan of 15ft (30m), a swept wingspan of 75ft (22.9m) and a All-Up Weight in the region of 400,00lb (181,437kg). The wing was set low on the fuselage, with a large glove for each wing that contained the sweep mechanism and fuel tanks, while the all-moving tailplanes were set high on the rear fuselage. The wings were tapered, with rounded tips, and could be moved from a 20 degree leading edge sweep to a fully spread position of 65 degrees.

Propulsion was provided by four reheated turbojets installed in a block of four along the rear fuselage. However, as the design progresses into the 1970s and 80s, the engines would be split up; with one under each of the wing gloves and two attached to the tail of the aircraft. The four engines were originally designed by Rowlands, dubbed the RE.80 Farnsithe bypass turbojets - which were rated at 9,250 lbf (41.1kN) without reheat and 16,500lbf (73.4kN) with reheat. However, these engines were replaced in the early 2010s by a higher-rated engine - developed by Rowlands.

Variants

7-11 100

First design version, features original Rowlands RE.80 engines, with the rear two engines fed air from a single pitot intake. Capable of carrying over 160 passengers.

7-11 100M

Military variant; stripped out for modular installation of require equipment for the mission specification. Modules include Maritime Patrol, Anti-Submarine Warfare and Electronic Warfare.

7-11 200

Second design version, features original Rowlands RE.80 engines, with the rear two engines fed air from a separate intakes. Capable of carrying over 160 passengers.

7-11 200M

Military variant; stripped out for modular installation of require equipment for the mission specification. Modules include Maritime Patrol, Anti-Submarine Warfare and Electronic Warfare.

Specifications

Operators

• Alteran Overseas Airways Corporation - Alteran Republics (Passenger)

• Alteran Air Defence Force - Alteran Republics (Transport/Freight)

• Alteran Maritime Defence Force - Alteran Republics (Transport/Freight)

• Laker Airways - Alteran Republics (Passenger)

• Sterling Airways - Alteran Republics (Passenger)
  

Liveries

Unpainted 7-11 100	Unpainted 7-11 100M
Unpainted 7-11 200	Unpainted 7-11 200M
Alteran Republics's 7-11 200M of the Alteran Air Defense Force	Alteran Republics's 7-11 200M of Laker Airways

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Merito non pareret. | By merit, not birth.