Supersonic airliner inching towards reality

[Darwin333]

Concorde was engineering master class and well ahead of its time.

This is just a rehash. Might as well just buy the Concorde blueprints and modernise electronics / navigation, etc.

Umm, no. This is a vastly improved airframe.

 

[sdifox]

I thought a sonic boom only occurred as the plane crossed the speed of sound, not a sustained thing or anything?

Continuous

 

[Darwin333]

I thought a sonic boom only occurred as the plane crossed the speed of sound, not a sustained thing or anything?

No, the boom is continuous during the entire supersonic flight.

 

[Exterous]

Well I for one hope they can pull it off.

My feelings regarding their ability to do that are not tied to my feelings on the idea itself

 

[Darwin333]

My feelings regarding their ability to do that are not tied to my feelings on the idea itself

What do you think it would take to pull it off?

 

[Genx87]

Yea I saw that but it said most and I thought I read somewhere about a NY to LA route but can't find it anymore. Also this is interesting from the article.

"Notwithstanding the question of whether the privatization of air traffic control is included, Scholl says: “Should an FAA bill get passed early next year, it will almost certainly include something on supersonic transport—and that will be either good, or really good. Everyone wants to make this happen, and we don’t have to change any regulations to see this work.”

The FAA and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) are working on a global standard for sonic boom that would lift the prohibition on supersonic flight over land. And NASA plans to fly a low-boom flight demonstrator in 2021, which would collect community response data on the public acceptability of a 75-PNLdB (perceived noise level decibel) boom—down significantly compared to the Concorde’s 105 PNLdB"

I am definitely not a fan of privatizing ATC.

A lot of the world has privatized ATC. afaik most if not all of Europes ATC is privatized.

 

[Exterous]

What do you think it would take to pull it off?

Competitive seat pricing that doesn't lose the airlines money although there are various ways to get there. I don't have a firm idea how many pay $5k for round trip seats in business class from NYC to Europe but I don't think its that many outside of peak travel dates. As mentioned earlier many have tried the all business class product, including BA, and it hasn't gone well. Taking one for more details La Compagnie couldn't sustain the route with ~$2k RT fares on their all business class planes landing between 7 and 8:10am. I think that might be lower than what a major airline could sustain due to brand awareness and frequent fliers but $5k for a RT sounds like a tough price point to me. I think having seating options to let the carriers decide what they want would be a good thing for the airline but that may add to overhead\compliance issues. Economy passengers are also less picky than business class. If you are paying that much for a flight in business class you are used to lie flat seats, good IFE, wifi, and seat power. Sure its a faster flight so you can cut some amenities but I doubt you could cut very many so you'll need to offer those affordably. Sleep is another factor and might actually be a negative for morning arrival flights to Europe. Do you want to depart at 7pm and get 5-6 hours of sleep to arrive around 8 or leave after 10 and get maybe 2.5-3 hours of sleep before needing to close a huge deal? (IIRC the Concorde actually arrived after 5pm with its original schedules which would cut into the 'important business traveler' aspect) Coming back works a little bit better - probably leaving around 11am and landing at 8am

No\reduced sonic booms to allow overland flight (and the resulting myriad of law changes across all manner of countries) would greatly expand their plane sales options which is a huge part of reducing airplane cost, driving seat prices down. Fuel efficiency is way up there too. With big airlines looking to cut costs everywhere they can having a plane that is less efficient is a huge red flag. Both Boeing and Airbus are using AI material modeling to improve efficiency while also improving strength so a heavy utilization of those emerging technologies would be a huge help to Boom.

I'd be a little concerned about getting various certifications for the aircraft as I've heard thats a difficult process (and then you need to get crew and operations certified. One reason Southwest hasn't had longer international flights is that they only recently have some crew and operations certified on distances long enough to reach Hawaii). I would assume if you hired people with experience from Boeing or Airbus they would be able to navigate this though

Of course government subsidies could alleviate cost issues like they did with the Concorde

A lot of the world has privatized ATC. afaik most if not all of Europes ATC is privatized.

Canada is too

 

[Darwin333]

No\reduced sonic booms to allow overland flight (and the resulting myriad of law changes across all manner of countries) would greatly expand their plane sales options which is a huge part of reducing airplane cost, driving seat prices down. Fuel efficiency is way up there too. With big airlines looking to cut costs everywhere they can having a plane that is less efficient is a huge red flag. Both Boeing and Airbus are using AI material modeling to improve efficiency while also improving strength so a heavy utilization of those emerging technologies would be a huge help to Boom.

I'd be a little concerned about getting various certifications for the aircraft as I've heard thats a difficult process (and then you need to get crew and operations certified. One reason Southwest hasn't had longer international flights is that they only recently have some crew and operations certified on distances long enough to reach Hawaii). I would assume if you hired people with experience from Boeing or Airbus they would be able to navigate this though

Of course government subsidies could alleviate cost issues like they did with the Concorde

I really agree on the overland part. It would allow manufacturers to start designing larger supersonic planes as they won't be limited to flights that cross the ocean and would, imho, be a complete game changer as far as getting new money invested into supersonic flight. I do think that people will pay a premium for significantly faster flights but I do agree that in order to be successful long term supersonic flights need to offer both the luxury seating and more economic type seats. I'm curious how many seats they could have fit if they designed the plane around "cattle class" seating and how much those seats would cost.