Well they are aiming to cut flight time to half of that of a normal flight. So if your normal flight is a long-haul flight that takes 12 hours, with a supersonic jet, it will be just 6 hours, not just 2. I envision the supersonic jet flight will be more worth it for those 10+ hour long-haul flights and not those local flights from like New York to Atlantic city. LOL
Yeah, and after what the US did to the Concorde, I hope they have a plan to land close enough to Europe but not there...
What did the US do to the Concorde? The thing crashed and burned because of debris on the runway in France, and BA/Air France finally had enough of the plane that just lost money with every flight.
That incident put the proverbial nail in the coffin of the Concorde program, but its woes really began when the US government took the plane's landing rights away on the account that it was too noisy. Without the London or Paris - NYC route, it was going to be difficult for this program to be financially viable, if it ever was going to be. My grandfather used to fly the Caracas - Paris concorde. Apparently a very cramped and noisy plane, but oh so sophisticated to fly back in those days.
Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE for a supersonic plane to work for the masses. Would LOVE it. But trust me, it is at least 100 years away. No sir, ain't happening in our lifetime. You want to know why? Because of this... This is hard for most people to understand, but it is the truth. Nobody accepts the radical.
100 years is a long time. Unless you know something we don't, I expect alternate flying methods within half that time. Once giant planes are financially viable with cattle class only passengers, we will see a proliferation of business/first class jets doing medium and long hauls in 30 to 50% less time. That competition may take us to faster and faster planes and back to supersonic. It's ironic that for jetsetters to jetset, the common people need to pay more for flying.
Here ya go: https://aerionsupersonic.com/ GE builds those motors btw. Between aviation and healthcare, I think the GE elephant is ok to buy and hold here at $14.
Aerion boss Vice argues that Aerion has an advantage when it comes to engine development, pointing to its partnership with GE and its plan to build the first commercial supersonic power plant in more than five decades. The design is exclusive for Aerion, said Vice, who declined to disclose how much the engine development will cost or how it’s being financed. “Somebody else wanting to build a supersonic business jet – they’re going to have to go find a different engine,” Vice said. Aerion “for sure” will be the first new supersonic commercial aircraft to market, he predicted. “We’ll get there years ahead of anybody else.” Aerion said it scoured the world for an engine, including Russian designs that would meet noise restrictions, fuel-burn requirements and reliability over thousands of hours of high-speed flying. No existing engines fit the bill, though. Aerion expanded its ongoing partnership with NASA’s Langley Research Center, with a specific focus on commercial flight in the Mach 3-5 range. Credit: Aerion photo. Instead, the company turned to GE to build an engine with 20,000 pounds of thrust, special acoustic linings to reduce take-off noise and dual turbo-fans that don’t require fuel-guzzling afterburners. GE’s Affinity engine will also be the first designed to run on traditional kerosene and synthetic fuel made in part by capturing carbon dioxide from the air.
Well the debris wasn't Concorde's fault. It was left on the runway by a DC-10 plane of the Continental Airlines flight that took off five minutes earlier. It cut through the tyre of the Concorde which sent debris to one of the fuel tanks which happened to be 94% full and the fule burst out and caused fire. And the debris which was a wear strip was not installed properly on that DC-10 plane according to the procedure. It was just a very very very bad day for Concorde and Air France. I hope they really sued Continental Airlines for poor maintenance of their planes that directly caused the loss of 113 lives on that day. So Concorde didn't really get retired due to technology. The technology is fine and is much improved today. It was due to $$. Sept. 11 happened soon afterwards and nobody wanted to fly anymore and then everybody wanted to fly cheap and nobody wanted to pay more money for fast flights anymore and they just couldn't make money anymore. But today there are more long-haul flights and there is more demand for direct non-stop long-haul flights, especially from those countries that are loaded and can afford and are willing to pay more for faster planes to reach their destinations faster. So UA might be catering to that crowd. It is the airline that has the highest number of flights serving China. *Hint Hint*