The superrich and political élite will be able to fly from London to New York in three hours once 2015 rolls around. A new supersonic jet, the Aerion, is in development that will be able fly at mach 1.6—that’s 1,217 mph.
And it’s not like this is a mock-up or anything. The company has already received 50 $237,000 deposits for the first models.
The supersonic jet is being marketed as something that will change the way business is conducted. Need to go from SoHo to Soho Square to sign a contract post-haste? Hope on the America-made Aerion and be back home in time for dinner.
Again, not that any of us, or even any we know, will ever fly on this thing, but it’s nothing if not an engineering marvel even if it doesn’t look as fancy as the Concorde of yesteryear.
I wonder how much a ticket on that thing is. Jeez!
Why isn’t there serious work being done to develop the next-generation SST for regular commercial airline service?? Cutting time of long-haul flights by half or more is a TREMENDOUS benefit to any passengers willing and able to pay the higher cost.
Avoiding half the duration of a (boring, stressful) subsonic flight is a REAL, positive benefit in its own right — not a largely contrived one like “premium”-cabin classes. The latter derive much of their dubious value from denial of such a level of comfort & service to “ordinary” pax – not so much because the “premium”-cabin classes are inherently that much better than “cattle car” class.
Unfortunately, only that tiny percentage of the travelling public which managed to cross the Atlantic on Concorde while she was in service, has experienced – and KNOWS – the great benefit of that twice-as-fast crossing. And no one has yet experienced the much greater benefit of a similarly-shortened PACIFIC crossing.
The technical challenges of sonic boom reduction, better fuel efficiency, lower jet exhaust emissions, and lower noise in low-altitude flight are significant. But probably no greater, at least relatively, than those of originally creating Concorde nearly half a century ago!
“Hope on the America-made Aerion…”
Hope is not a plan. You may wanna fix this typo
;-)