supersonic air travel companies

Supersonic Plane Travel Is Closer Than You Thought

For many travelers, the words ‘supersonic flight’ conjure up images both futuristic and nostalgic.

Gone are the glory days of the Concorde , the iconic long-nosed jet that transported celebrities and assorted jet-setters across the Atlantic in just a few hours. Beloved for its short transit time— New York to London in just over three hours, going at about twice the speed of sound—the Concorde met its end because of a variety of complications. Firstly, the fact that the jets created a loud sonic boom (the roar that results when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier), and even more importantly, that they were expensive to operate, making it difficult for airlines to turn a profit. By 2003, Concorde was defunct.

But now, two aviation projects are working to overcome those concerns to make supersonic air travel a reality for passengers once more: a private company called Boom Technology and the second, a partnership between NASA and Lockheed Martin. Later this year, both programs will hit a major milestone when they launch test flights of their innovative aircraft for the first time.

Here’s what travelers should know about the supersonic test flights launching in the US in 2024.

A quest for a quiet boom

One major reason why supersonic planes are no longer a facet of modern air travel is the deafening boom the jets create as they cross the sound barrier. Due to the thunderous noise, Concorde was only allowed to fly faster than the speed of sound over water, a regulation still in place for supersonic flights today.

But NASA and Lockheed Martin are endeavoring to find a way to make crossing the sound barrier quieter. NASA’s mission, called Quesst, is to design a jet that creates a noise more like a “sonic thump,” than a roaring boom, according to a NASA release .

NASA and Lockheed just debuted that experimental jet to the public on January 12. Dubbed X-59, the jet is expected to fly 1.4 times faster than the speed of sound—or 925 miles per hour. The aircraft’s innovative design, unique shape, and other technologies are expected to help diminish its sonic boom.

The X-59 jet is expected to fly 1.4 times faster than the speed of sound—or 925 miles per hour.

With the design now complete, the aircraft will undergo a series of ground tests before its first flight. “The aircraft is set to take off for the first time later this year, followed by its first quiet supersonic flight,” NASA says. The first test flights will take place in California , both at Lockheed’s and NASA’s research centers. “Once NASA completes flight tests, the agency will fly the aircraft over several to-be-selected cities across the US, collecting input about the sound the X-59 generates and how people perceive it,” the agency’s release says.

NASA will share its data with regulators and the wider air travel industry. “By demonstrating the possibility of quiet commercial supersonic travel over land, we seek to open new commercial markets for US companies and benefit travelers around the world,” Bob Pearce, associate administrator for aeronautics research at NASA Headquarters in Washington, says in the release.

A supersonic jet with a business-class feel

NASA isn't the only major player working to bring supersonic flight back from the past and into the future of air travel . Boom Supersonic, a private company based in Colorado, aims to bring commercial supersonic flights back to US airlines by 2029. When completed, its passenger aircraft, Overture, is expected to fly at speeds up to Mach 1.7, which is about 1,300 miles per hour—or twice as fast as today’s passenger planes .

At those speeds, passengers can travel from New York to Rome in just five hours (instead of eight), Honolulu to Tokyo in four hours (instead of more than eight), and Zurich to Philadelphia in less than five hours (compared to nine).

Boom’s first test aircraft, called XB-1, is set to take its first test flight in early 2024 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. XB-1 is a supersonic demonstrator jet, used to prove Boom’s ability to cross the sound barrier, and not an aircraft that will carry passengers. (Overture, which is designed to carry passengers, isn’t expected to be tested until 2026.)

“In the last 12 months, XB-1 has received its airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, completed an extensive Flight Readiness Review (FRR), and successfully executed a series of integrated ground and taxi tests,” Boom says on its website . So far, the XB-1 has reach speeds of up to 108 miles per hour during taxi tests on the ground. Before the jet can fly, it will need to complete a few more ground tests, including high-speed taxis.

The company says that the Overture aircraft is being designed to meet today’s takeoff and landing noise levels, and will only cross the sound barrier over water. Boom could also possibly leverage NASA’s quiet boom technology in the future, according to a company spokesperson. “When flying over land, Overture can fly significantly faster than subsonic commercial jets—about Mach 0.94, without breaking the sound barrier,” says the Boom spokesperson. “This is about 20% faster than subsonic flight.”

Boom’s first test aircraft, called XB-1, is set to take its first test flight in early 2024 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Learnings from XB-1’s test flights will be applied to the Overture jet that will carry passengers past the sound barrier. US airlines have already begun placing orders for Boom’s supersonic aircraft, in anticipation of Concorde-like travel becoming mainstream once again.

United Airlines was the first carrier to purchase supersonic planes from Boom, ordering 15 of the Overture jets, set to be delivered in 2029, with an option to buy an additional 35. “Among the many future potential routes for United are Newark to London in just three and a half hours, Newark to Frankfurt in four hours and San Francisco to Tokyo in just six hours,” United said when it announced the purchase.

American Airlines , which ordered up to 20 of the aircraft with an option to buy an additional 40, said its potential supersonic routes could include “ Miami to London in just under five hours and Los Angeles to Honolulu in three hours are among the many possibilities.”

Of course, fares will be left up to the airlines to set; however, Boom CEO Blake Scholl has said that the planes are designed to compete with current international business-class ticket prices, starting around $5,000.

Inside, the planes will have a more exclusive atmosphere compared to current planes flying international routes, carrying just 64 to 80 passengers. Boom is designing its supersonic plane cabin to compete with current airlines’ top business-class products . Some of the cabin features could include large personal windows, direct aisle access, dedicated underseat storage , and a first-class, lie-flat experience .

How will supersonic air travel impact travelers?

The modern revival of supersonic air travel has the potential to create a more sustainable way to fly. Not only could the sonic booms be quieter (thus reducing the negative effects aircraft noise can have on wildlife), but the plane’s carbon footprints could also be drastically reduced. Boom’s planes will be able to run entirely on sustainable aviation fuel , meaning the flights could emit a net-zero carbon output.

While many of us may never get to experience the golden age of flying , supersonic jets could usher in a new era of luxe flying—for when it comes to travel, time truly is our most precious commodity. For many customers “Concorde delivered efficiency, effectiveness, comfort, and the ability to do in two days what would otherwise take four,” Mike Bannister, former chief Concorde pilot for British Airways said in a Boom release in 2020. Supersonic flight was especially appealing to business travelers , who had the ability to make a day trip out of a long-haul transatlantic trip. “They could travel from London to New York and back in a single day and still have time to do business upon final landing," he said.

The short travel times can also help significantly reduce the effects of jet lag , according to former Concorde passengers and pilots. “In crossing the Atlantic from London to New York in three hours and twenty minutes, we endured no jet lag, arrived on time, earlier than we left, and with very happy customers,” Bannister said. (This becomes especially true if you can take a day trip across time zones and retire for the night in your own bed.)

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See 7 supersonic passenger-jet concepts that will connect cities in as little as one hour and fly up to 9 times faster than the speed of sound

The Concorde was a supersonic commercial airliner, flying passengers at 1,350 miles per hour.
High costs, safety concerns, and loud sonic booms forced the plane to retire in 2003.
Several companies are trying to reintroduce supersonic air travel with new ultra-high-speed jet concepts.

The age of supersonic commercial air travel started in 1973 with the first transatlantic crossing of the famous Concorde aircraft.

The Concorde made its first supersonic passenger flight 40 years ago — this is what it was like

Jointly developed by Aérospatiale — a predecessor of Airbus Industries — and the British Aircraft Corporation, the high-speed jet could fly up to 1,350 miles per hour, or twice the speed of sound.

Source: Insider

The first passenger flight occurred on January 21, 1976, when British Airways flew the Concorde from London to Bahrain in just four hours — two and half hours faster than subsonic jets.

Air France started Concorde operations the same day, flying from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar, Senegal.

Source: Air France

The Concorde's early success pushed British Airways and Air France, the only two operators of the jet — with seven each — to add more routes, like Paris to New York and London to Washington, DC.

Source: Britannica

However, over time, the jet proved to be too expensive and too noisy to maintain. A deadly crash in 2000 further accelerated its retirement, which came in 2003 after 27 years of commercial service.

Why we still don't have another Concorde

Since the Concorde's demise, the industry has not seen another supersonic jet because manufacturers are still trying to solve the challenges the iconic plane faced, like efficiency, cost, and noise.

However, companies worldwide have jets in development, and the Federal Aviation Administration has expressed its support for the reintroduction of supersonic travel in the US "as long as safety parameters are followed."

Source: Federal Aviation Administration

Texas-based startup Venus Aerospace is the most recent manufacturer to unveil a new supersonic jet — except the company hopes to go hypersonic, at Mach 9, meaning the plane will fly nine times faster than the speed of sound.

Source: Venus Aerospace

According to Venus Aerospace, its Stargazer jet will connect any two cities on Earth in an hour or less by flying along the edge of space.

The jet, dubbed a "spaceplane," will have a capacity of just 12 passengers and be powered by zero-emission rocket engines.

Other companies are also hoping to enter the hypersonic market. China's Space Transportation, also known as Beijing Lingkong Tianxing, is developing a 12-passenger jet that can fly 4,350 miles per hour, connecting New York and Beijing in one hour.

Source: Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone , CNN

The ultra-high-speed jet concept, which is planned to begin flight testing in 2023, is not the company's first product. Lingkong Tianxing has also been developing reusable rockets, which are the foundation of its future commercial spaceplane.

Source: Space Transportation (Lingkong Tianxing)

NASA and Lockheed Martin have partnered to develop the X-59 supersonic aircraft, which is part of the Quesst mission. While not a passenger concept, the supersonic jet will help minimize sonic booms over land.

Source: Lockheed Martin , NASA

This will allow commercial supersonic planes to travel faster than the speed of sound over populated areas, which the Concorde was not permitted to do.

Lockheed Martin is planning to build on top of its testbed by creating a 40-seater ultra-fast commercial aircraft, which it calls Quiet Supersonic Technology Airliner (QSTA). The plane is planned to fly at Mach 1.8, or about 1,380 miles per hour.

Source: Lockheed Martin , CNN

Meanwhile, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the country's national space agency, is developing an unnamed supersonic jet that will carry 50 passengers and have a sonic boom 50% smaller than the Concorde's.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

The agency is developing the aircraft in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Subaru. JAXA is also partnered with NASA on the X-59 QueSST project that will help the agency reduce its own jet's sonic boom.

US-based Exosonic is also developing a quiet, low-boom supersonic passenger plane. The 70-seater jet is planned to fly at Mach 1.8, with tickets costing the same as a regular business-class fare.

Source: Aerotime

In 2020, Exosonic was awarded a grant from the US Air Force to build a supersonic plane that could serve as the future Air Force One.

Source: Exosonic

The Air Force's Life Cycle Management Center said the deal will push the development of a "low-boom supersonic executive transport aircraft that will allow key decision makers and teams to travel around the world in half the time it takes now."

Source: FlightGlobal

South African billionaire Priven Reddy's company, EON Aerospace, is also trying to get into the supersonic market with EON nxt-01, an environmentally friendly ultra-fast jet.

Source: EON Aerospace

The plane would fly at Mach 1.9 and have up to 88 seats, with the goal to run on sustainable aviation fuel and operate with net-zero carbon emissions. EON hopes to get the jet into service by 2029.

Colorado-based Boom Supersonic, which is developing a Concorde-like plane known as Overture, is the only startup that reports having orders on the books.

Boom Supersonic's ultra-fast planes that United Airlines is set to begin flying in 2029 will be built and tested in North Carolina

United Airlines has purchased 15 of the high-speed Overture aircraft in a deal worth $3 billion. The jet is scheduled to enter commercial service with the airline in 2029.

The $200 million jet will fly at Mach 1.7, or about 1,300 miles per hour, and connect cities like Newark, New Jersey, and Frankfurt, Germany, in four hours. United estimates it will carry 65-88 passengers in an all-business cabin.

Japan Airlines also invested $10 million in Boom as part of a preorder for 20 Overture jets in 2017. The company plans to carry 45-55 business-class passengers and originally expected a mid-2020s entry to service, but there has been no update since.

Source: Japan Airlines , Boom Supersonic

If United's plan stays on track, the airline will become the first commercial carrier to fly a supersonic plane in regularly scheduled passenger service since the Concorde.

Main content

Watch CBS News

Startups and NASA working to return passenger supersonic flights to the sky

By Bill Whitaker

November 21, 2021 / 6:56 PM EST / CBS News

If you are planning to travel by air over the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays – and millions of Americans are – would you jump at the chance to get to your destination in half the time? Does New York to Los Angeles in under three hours sound appealing?

The last commercial supersonic flight was almost 20 years ago, and even then super-fast flights were only on very limited routes. Most of today's jetliners actually fly more slowly than they did 20 or 30 years ago, in order to save fuel.

But that may be about to change. It's still a long shot, but private start-up companies – with a big assist from NASA – may just give us all another chance to fly faster than the speed of sound.

When British Airways Flight 002 roared into the New York sky on October 24, 2003, everyone on board - passengers and pilots - knew that something special was coming to an end.

PILOT: Enjoy the moment, as you are the last people in the world, as passengers, to cruise at twice the speed of sound .

The supersonic Concorde, a joint effort of the British and French governments, was making its last flight after nearly 30 years in the air, grounded by a combination of stratospheric costs and safety concerns after a deadly crash in 2000. Even people watching that last landing in London were emotional.

KID (in tears): I just love airplanes.

INTERVIEWER: And there's not going to be anything like Concorde again, is there?

KID: Never.

Well, you know that old maxim "never say never?"

Blake Scholl: Supersonic's coming back. And it's gonna be different this time. It's-- it's back to stay.

Blake Scholl is the founder and CEO of Boom. His audacious goal is to build a new supersonic airliner, from scratch.

Bill Whitaker: Has a private company ever built-- a supersonic aircraft--

Blake Scholl: No.

Bill Whitaker: --anywhere?

Blake Scholl: No, nowhere. It's been governments and militaries only.

Boom is not the only American startup company in the new supersonic sweepstakes. Spike is developing an ultra-fast business jet, and Hermeus aspires to make a hypersonic plane that would fly five times the speed of sound. But Boom is the only entrant to actually build an airplane.

Bill Whitaker: This is it?

Blake Scholl: That's it.

Bill Whitaker: Oh wow.

So far, Blake Scholl and Boom have built this single-seater test plane, due to make its first flight next year. The passenger jet meant to follow is called Overture. It only exists in artist renderings, but it's real enough for one of America's largest airlines to climb on board.

Bill Whitaker: So is the Overture the plane that United recently ordered?

Blake Scholl: That's right. United just ordered 15 Overture airplanes. So more Overtures than Concordes were ever delivered into service.

Bill Whitaker: Is this United deal like-- a stamp of approval?

Blake Scholl: I think it's incredibly validating. You know, when you are United, you take-- you take these things really seriously.

Seriously enough to produce a slick promotional video that's already playing on many United flights.

The ad may say supersonic is here, but it's not, not yet. Blake Scholl is a software engineer who started his career at Amazon, not in aerospace, but he insists he's going to make it happen.

Blake Scholl: When I look several decades out, you know, what I want is to be able to be anywhere in the world in four hours for 100 bucks. Now, that's not where we start. But that's the end goal.

Bill Whitaker: The Concorde charged thousands-- thousands of dollars for a one-way flight from New York to London. How is it going to be possible for you to have a similar flight experience for $100?

Blake Scholl: You keep iterating. And so the same way-- you know, for example, electric cars when they first came out, they were pretty expensive. But we kept working on them. And the price came down. They got better and better. And so we're gonna do the same thing with supersonic jets. We're gonna keep working on them. We're gonna keep innovating.

Jon Ostrower: This industry needs people dreaming big. That is essential. This industry was built on that.

Jon Ostrower is editor-in-chief of The Air Current, a publication that tracks every development in commercial aviation, including Boom and Blake Scholl.

Bill Whitaker: He admits that it's-- something like he is proposing has never been done by-- a private company before. But yet, he's convinced that he can do it. Do you think he can?

Jon Ostrower: I think you cannot ignore the obstacles that will be on the path to getting there. And I think the amount of money that is-- is required to make this happen-- makes this a very long shot.

Bill Whitaker: How much money will it take?

Jon Ostrower: Probably in the neighborhood of at least $15 or $20 billion.

Ostrower says that's about what it cost Boeing to develop and build and certify a new subsonic airliner. And they already have huge manufacturing facilities, Boom doesn't.

Blake Scholl told us he can get Overture built for $7 to $8 billion, but that's a lot more than the $300 million he's raised so far. And money's not the only hurdle. Boom and United have promised their new plane will operate on 100% sustainable aviation fuel, but that doesn't exist yet in anything like the quantities they'll need. Oh, and one other thing...

Jon Ostrower: They're gonna need an engine to do this.

Bill Whitaker: And they don't have the engine yet—

Jon Ostrower: They don't have an engine.

Blake Scholl says an engine is on the way, from the same company that built the supersonic engines for the concorde.

Blake Scholl: And we are working with Rolls Royce on a-- custom jet engine that will power Overture.

Bill Whitaker: You're working with Rolls Royce. It-- it doesn't ex-- this engine does not exist yet.

Blake Scholl: It is a-- it is a lightly customized engine. And part of that is Rolls Royce's work where they're kind of turning some design knobs.

Blake Scholl doesn't dismiss the skeptics, but he points to the example of Elon Musk and says not so long ago no one thought he could build Teslas and reusable rockets.

Bill Whitaker: Where does this passion come from?

Blake Scholl: It's because we stopped making progress on the speed of travel. You know, the airplanes we have today are no faster than the ones we had when my parents were growing up. And there is no good reason for that. It doesn't have to be. We can fix it.

Bill Whitaker: When do you expect the first paying customers to fly on one of your planes?

Blake Scholl: By the end of the decade.

Supersonic really only makes sense on flights of 4 or 5 hours or more. But thousands of such routes are out of reach to Boom. The reason is in the very name of the company: The sound of a sonic boom created by a plane breaking the sound barrier.

The first boom was made by Chuck Yeager's X-1 rocket plane when it passed through mach one – about 660 miles per hour - back in 1947.

Bill Whitaker: What is the sonic boom? What-- what generates it?

Mike Buonanno: So when an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound it creates disturbances.

Mike Buonanno is a top engineer at Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works" aircraft design studio in California. Dave Richardson is his boss.

David Richardson: A lot of us understand the wake that's generated by a ship or a boat. And so imagine that wake from a speed boat or whatever, all those different waves coming to be one large wave.

Mike Buonanno: Those individual disturbances created up by the airplane, they combine together to make a loud double bang.

The Federal Aviation Administration tested the impact of that big bang back in 1964, by flying military supersonic jets over Oklahoma City for six months. The outcome? Broken bricks and ceilings, frayed nerves and public outrage.

Mike Buonanno: It was just patently obvious that no one was gonna tolerate such a loud noise on a day-to-day basis.

The result was a ban on civilian supersonic flights everywhere in the world other than over open water.

Mike Buonanno: And that basically hit the brakes on the development of commercial air travel in terms of an advancing speed. Up until-- that ban, every decade air travel had gotten faster and faster.

The ban remains in place today, so if Boom gets its overture in the air, it will only be able to serve long transoceanic routes similar to what the Concorde flew.

Mike Buonanno: So if you want to go from JFK in New York to Paris, that's-- okay. But for many of us, we wanna fly places over land. Here living in Los Angeles, almost everywhere I wanna go-- flying east requires over land travel. And that's one of the big problems that we're trying to solve.

Buonanno and Richardson and their Lockheed Martin team have been commissioned by NASA to build a test plane that can fly twice as fast as current airliners without rattling nerves or breaking windows.

Bill Whitaker: Your mission is to get rid of this sonic boom?

Mike Buonanno: That's right. The entire point of the airplane-- is to reduce sonic boom.

The airplane is called the X-59. It will look like this when it makes its first flight next year. For now, it looks like this, inside Lockheed Martin's assembly building.

David Richardson: You're looking at the cockpit of the airplane, and there's no forward windscreen. This is it.

Every part of the X-59 is streamlined and smooth to disperse sound waves and transform the loud sonic boom into a much quieter "thump."

Nils Larson: If you look at it, it's pretty slick. I mean, it looks like a dart.

Nils Larson is the NASA test pilot whose job it will be to prove that the X-59 can replace the sonic boom with a simple thump. Starting next year he'll pilot some of the early test flights and then its first sound tests.

Nils Larson: That's coming to a town near you. So our researchers are gonna work with the public and we're going to fly over various cities and towns, and they're gonna give us the feedback of that thump. Was that thump too loud? You know, did you even hear it at all?

Bill Whitaker: So if you are able to fly over populated areas, and provide this data, then the FAA will use this data, perhaps, to lift this ban?

Nils Larson: Exactly.

Bill Whitaker: Are we likely to see planes in the future flying supersonic that look like this one?

Nils Larson: I certainly hope so. And I think you will. So there are definite things that you would see, if you walked into a commercial, you know, supersonic airplane here, you know, ten, 12 years from now, and you were to look at that, you could see, you know, some DNA that goes back to the X-59.

Larson took us over to NASA's X-59 flight simulator, and the first thing we noticed is that there's a TV screen in place of the missing windshield.

Bill Whitaker: For you, does it work as well as--

Nils Larson: Yeah, I think--

Bill Whitaker: --using your own eyes?

Nils Larson: So far, I think it does. About to go through mach one. There's mach one. You know, you see--

Bill Whitaker: So we're now going supersonic.

Nils Larson: Yup, you're now supersonic.

Larson gave me a turn in the cockpit, not to fly supersonic but to land the X-59, which is tricky given that it's shaped like a pencil, has no windshield and I'm not a pilot.

Nils Larson: Come up, follow them up just a little bit. So pull back just a little bit, little bit more. And just hold it right there. Hold it right there. There you go. You just landed the X59. And in the middle--

Bill Whitaker: I landed--

Nils Larson: --of the runway.

Bill Whitaker: --I landed the--

Nils Larson: --that's better than I did. (LAUGH) Sign him up.

Nils Larson will start test-flying the real X-59 sometime next year. And soon after that, he'll be flying it over us. And if it's quiet enough, future planes that follow its design lead could eventually fly us lots of places twice as fast as we can get there now.

Bill Whitaker: When might I be able to fly from New York to Los Angeles in a supersonic plane--

David Richardson: So there's-- there's a long line of things that have to happen, starting with the X-59. But I think 2035 is your answer, if everything marches along the way that it's supposed to.

Bill Whitaker: It's something that people have been trying to solve for-- for decades. Have you guys solved that problem?

Mike Buonanno: We believe we have. It's rewarding seeing it getting built. But I think that real "aha" moment for me is gonna be when I hear that first shaped boom from X-59.

Bill Whitaker: Thump, thump.

Mike Buonanno: Thump, thump.

David Richardson: We won't hear this BANG. And when we hear, or don't hear, that sound is when we know we did it.

Produced by Rome Hartman. Associate producer, Sara Kuzmarov. Broadcast associate, Emilio Almonte. Edited by Robert Zimet.

Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News.

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A new era of supersonic flight is on the horizon. Image: Unsplash/John McArthur

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Stay up to date:, aerospace and aviation.

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A new generation of supersonic airliners is set to transform the aviation sector.
Plane manufacturers Boom are aiming to build aircraft that are carbon neutral.
Sustainable aviation fuels will power the supersonic jets through the sound barrier.
Scaling up production of sustainable jet fuel will be key to decarbonizing air travel.

A new era of supersonic flight is on the horizon with major airlines placing orders for the next generation of ultrafast jets.

American Airlines has committed to buy up to 20 Overture jets, which are being developed by Boom Supersonic . American Airlines has an option to buy a further 40 planes. United Airlines has ordered 15 aircraft and may commit to 35 more. The current pre-order book runs to 130 aircraft.

The orders for Boom’s Overture aircraft come almost 20 years after Concorde was grounded, bringing a close to the first age of supersonic passenger planes.

Overture promises to bring back transatlantic flights in a fraction of the journey time of subsonic aircraft, with a cruising speed of Mach 1.7 - almost twice the speed of today’s fastest commercial aircraft.

Boom says the plane is more than just a transatlantic workhorse, forecasting profitable operations on more than 600 routes worldwide. Overture will have a range of almost 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres) and will carry up to 80 passengers. It will only fly supersonic over oceans, to avoid inflicting sonic booms on populations.

Zoom or Boom?

Questions about demand for a new generation of supersonic jets have arisen since the pandemic, with calls on Zoom and Teams replacing the need to cross oceans and continents for business meetings. Research from the World Travel and Tourism Council shows business travellers spent $1trillion on flights in 2019 . It’s forecasting business travel spending will return to two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels this year. Boom will hope its aircraft can succeed where Concorde failed; attracting enough passengers to make the Overture viable for airlines to operate.

Sustainability beyond sound

A crucial difference, says Boom, between Concorde and Overture is that the new plane will be carbon neutral, powered by sustainable aircraft fuels (SAFs) that are currently in the development phase. The infographic below shows how green aviation fuels can be made by recycling household waste and oil. These are converted into a fuel-production feedstock. After processing, this is mixed with traditional jet fuel. Air bp says using SAFs can reduce an aircraft’s lifecycle carbon emissions by 80%, compared to traditional fuels.

Another process for making clean jet fuel, known as Power-to-Liquids , uses electricity from renewable sources to power electrolyzers that create green hydrogen. This is then mixed with CO2 captured from the atmosphere. The liquid hydrocarbons from this process are converted into synthetic kerosene aviation fuel.

The major challenge for this new generation of supersonic jets will be the production of SAFs at a viable scale. Andreas Hardeman, Aerospace and Drones Lead at the World Economic Forum, says current levels of production amount to a drop in the ocean.

“Today, SAF represents less than 0.1% of all jet fuel, so that’s nowhere near where we need to be. In addition to scaling up production capacity, we’ll need regulatory and fiscal policies to help reduce the cost differential between the SAF fuels and conventional jet fuel.”

Cleaning up the skies

The World Economic Forum has launched the Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition , a public-private collaboration that’s helping the aviation sector move towards net-zero emissions. Accelerating the scale of SAF production is a central pillar of the coalition’s work. It has developed aviation fuel policy toolkits to help governments as they embark on clean aviation strategies.

Andreas Hardeman also believes organizations like the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) will be central in dictating the pace of the transition to clean jet fuels. “Ultimately, once the international certification bodies will allow the use of 100% SAF, we expect to see significantly increased momentum to scale up production and an acceleration in aviation emissions cuts.”

As other sectors proceed to decarbonize, the aviation sector could account for a much higher share of global greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century than its 2%-3% share today.

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) can reduce the life-cycle carbon footprint of aviation fuel by up to 80%, but they currently make up less than 0.1% of total aviation fuel consumption. Enabling a shift from fossil fuels to SAFs will require a significant increase in production, which is a costly investment.

The Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow (CST) Coalition is a global initiative driving the transition to sustainable aviation fuels as part of the aviation industry’s ambitious efforts to achieve carbon-neutral flying.

The coalition brings together government leaders, climate experts and CEOs from aviation, energy, finance and other sectors who agree on the urgent need to help the aviation industry reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The coalition aims to advance the commercial scale of viable production of sustainable low-carbon aviation fuels (bio and synthetic) for broad adoption in the industry by 2030. Initiatives include a mechanism for aggregating demand for carbon-neutral flying, a co-investment vehicle and geographically specific value-chain industry blueprints.

Learn more about the Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition's impact and contact us to find out how you can get involved.

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United Airlines Wants to Revive Supersonic Travel. But What About Climate Change?

Joe Hernandez

An illustration of the Overture supersonic airliner designed by the Boom Supersonic company of Denver, Colo. United Airlines announced it will purchase 15 of the planes for commercial passenger service. United Airlines hide caption

United Airlines announced Thursday that it will purchase 15 supersonic airliners from a Denver-based startup that would fly 65 to 85 passengers at record speed.

Dubbed the Overture, the new aircraft from Boom Supersonic is designed to travel at 1.7 times the speed of sound, or about 1,300 mph, twice as fast as current airliners. That means it could complete transcontinental flights in roughly half the time.

"Boom's vision for the future of commercial aviation, combined with the industry's most robust route network in the world, will give business and leisure travelers access to a stellar flight experience," United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement .

Boom expects to start building the Overture next year. After that, it will face several years of safety and flight testing before beginning United passenger flights in 2029, the companies said.

The fate of commercial supersonic flight has been in question ever since British Airways and Air France retired the ultrafast Concorde jet in 2003, citing sinking revenues and rising operational costs. The decision followed a 2000 crash in Paris of a chartered Air France Concorde that left 113 people dead.

An Air France Concorde takes off from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2001. The world's first and only commercial supersonic passenger aircraft was retired in 2003. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

An Air France Concorde takes off from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2001. The world's first and only commercial supersonic passenger aircraft was retired in 2003.

Welcoming Leisure Travel, Airlines Inch Back Toward Profitability

Returning supersonic commercial planes to the air raises environmental questions.

One big difference this time around is the world's focus on tackling climate change, and the aviation industry has faced scrutiny for its considerable carbon footprint .

Even among aircraft, supersonic jets are known for their unusually high emissions. They fly high in the atmosphere where the air is thinner and burn more fuel than traditional planes in order to reach their extreme speeds. As a result, the Concorde generated three times more of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide than conventional planes, according to Climate Home News .

"A report from NASA earlier this year cited numerous environmental hazards of faster-than-sound commercial travel, although the paper did not examine specific designs such as Boom's," wrote David Slotnick, senior aviation business reporter for The Points Guy , an online travel publication.

Boom officials say the Overture will be able to fly on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and be the first commercial plane to immediately reach net-zero carbon emissions.

The company partnered with a new firm called Prometheus Fuels , which says its manufacturing process pulls carbon dioxide from the air in what is called "direct air carbon capture" and converts it into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Boom announced the partnership as it was developing its first "demonstrator" aircraft, the XB-1.

The method was discovered by German chemists in the 1920s, according to Science magazine , and is referred to as synthesizing gasoline. In the early 20th century, the process required coal, heat and pressure. Under its updated method, Prometheus says it uses water, air and electricity derived from renewable energy sources to make fuels.

Because the company pulls carbon dioxide from the air — and doesn't emit any greenhouse gases during the creation of its fuels — it greatly reduces the impact of any carbon emissions given off during the burning of its fuels.

The companies say multiple measures will make the plane carbon neutral - and recyclable

Additionally, Boom said it would use carbon offsets to make the XB-1 program carbon neutral. It has also vowed to design the Overture in a more efficient way so it requires less fuel, and to investigate how to make the aircraft as recyclable as possible so it can be repurposed at the end of its operational life.

"United and Boom share a common purpose—to unite the world safely and sustainably," said Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl. "The world's first purchase agreement for net-zero carbon supersonic aircraft marks a significant step toward our mission to create a more accessible world."

Doug Vine, director of energy analysis at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said more aircraft manufacturers and airlines are attempting to use sustainable fuel derived from things like recycled oil and biomass to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and chart a course for their business that emphasizes sustainability.

"I think the aviation industry is very interested in doing this now," he said.

Vine added that such sustainability was possible so long as aircraft manufacturers and airlines could track how much carbon dioxide they removed from the atmosphere and how much they emitted.

"Sustainable aviation fuel is one of the pathways to limiting emissions growth in the industry," Vine said.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently took steps to regulate emissions by commercial aircraft, though the plan was met with skepticism by environmentalists.

In addition to carbon emissions generated by planes, advocates have also warned about the harmful effects of sonic booms on people and animals nearby.

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Supersonic plane travel is closer than you thought

For many travellers, the words ‘supersonic flight’ conjure up images both futuristic and nostalgic.

Gone are the glory days of the Concorde, the iconic long-nosed jet that transported celebrities and assorted jet-setters across the Atlantic in just a few hours. Beloved for its short transit time – New York to London in just over three hours, going at about twice the speed of sound – the Concorde met its end because of a variety of complications. Firstly, the fact that the jets created a loud sonic boom (the roar that results when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier), and even more importantly, they were expensive to operate, making it difficult for airlines to turn a profit. By 2003, Concorde was defunct.

Here’s what travellers should know about the supersonic test flights launching in the US in 2024.

A quest for a quiet boom

But NASA and Lockheed Martin are endeavouring to find a way to make crossing the sound barrier quieter. NASA’s mission, called Quesst, is to design a jet that creates a noise more like a “sonic thump,” than a roaring boom, according to a NASA release .

NASA and Lockheed just debuted that experimental jet to the public on January 12. Dubbed X-59, the jet is expected to fly 1.4 times faster than the speed of sound – or 925 miles per hour. The aircraft’s innovative design, unique shape, and other technologies are expected to help diminish its sonic boom.

The X-59 jet is expected to fly 1.4 times faster than the speed of sound—or 925 miles per hour.

With the design now complete, the aircraft will undergo a series of ground tests before its first flight. “The aircraft is set to take off for the first time later this year, followed by its first quiet supersonic flight,” NASA says. The first test flights will take place in California , both at Lockheed’s and NASA’s research centres. “Once NASA completes flight tests, the agency will fly the aircraft over several to-be-selected cities across the US, collecting input about the sound the X-59 generates and how people perceive it,” the agency’s release says.

NASA will share its data with regulators and the wider air travel industry. “By demonstrating the possibility of quiet commercial supersonic travel over land, we seek to open new commercial markets for US companies and benefit travellers around the world,” Bob Pearce, associate administrator for aeronautics research at NASA Headquarters in Washington, says in the release.

A supersonic jet with a business-class feel

The company says that the aircraft is designed to meet today’s takeoff and landing noise levels, and will only cross the sound barrier over water. Boom could also possibly leverage NASA’s quiet boom technology in the future, according to a company spokesperson. “When flying over land, Overture can fly significantly faster than subsonic commercial jets – about Mach 0.94, without breaking the sound barrier,” says the Boom spokesperson. “This is about 20% faster than subsonic flight.”

Boom’s first test aircraft, called XB-1, is set to take its first test flight in early 2024 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

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American Airlines, which ordered up to 20 of the aircraft with an option to buy an additional 40, said its potential supersonic routes could include “ Miami to London in just under five hours and Los Angeles to Honolulu in three hours are among the many possibilities.”

Inside, the planes will have a more exclusive atmosphere compared to current planes flying international routes, carrying just 65 to 80 passengers. Boom is designing its supersonic plane cabin to compete with current airlines’ top business-class products. Some of the cabin features could include large personal windows, direct aisle access, dedicated underseat storage , and a first-class, lie-flat experience.

How will supersonic air travel impact travellers?

While many of us may never get to experience the golden age of flying, supersonic jets could usher in a new era of luxe flying – for when it comes to travel, time truly is our most precious commodity. For many customers “Concorde delivered efficiency, effectiveness, comfort, and the ability to do in two days what would otherwise take four,” Mike Bannister, former chief Concorde pilot for British Airways said in a Boom release in 2020. Supersonic flight was especially appealing to business travellers , who had the ability to make a day trip out of a long-haul transatlantic trip. “They could travel from London to New York and back in a single day and still have time to do business upon final landing," he said.

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General Aviation , Technical

Breaking the Sound Barrier: The Comeback of Supersonic Travel

August 22, 2023

Once considered the pinnacle of aviation technology, supersonic travel – traveling faster than the speed of sound – is making a comeback after decades of dormancy. With advancements in engineering, technology, and a renewed interest in ultra-fast air travel, supersonic aircraft are poised to revolutionize long-haul journeys. This article delves into the reasons behind the renewed interest in supersonic travel, the challenges faced, and the potential impact on the aviation industry.

The Nostalgia of Supersonic Flight

Supersonic flight, once the embodiment of cutting-edge technology and luxury, has left an indelible mark on aviation history and popular culture. The era of the Concorde, that iconic supersonic passenger jet, stands as a testament to human ingenuity and the audacious pursuit of faster-than-sound travel. As we journey through the resurgence of supersonic travel, it’s essential to reflect on the nostalgia that surrounds this remarkable era and its enduring impact on the world of aviation.

The Concorde Era: The nostalgia surrounding supersonic flight is deeply rooted in the iconic Concorde era. The Concorde, a marvel of aerospace engineering and design, captured the imagination of the world during its operational years from 1976 to 2003. Its distinctive delta wing shape, slender fuselage, and supersonic capabilities represented a symbol of human innovation and progress. The Concorde’s ability to whisk passengers across the Atlantic in under four hours created an aura of exclusivity and luxury that was unrivaled in its time. Its retirement left a void in high-speed air travel.
Speed and Prestige: Supersonic flight has always been associated with cutting-edge technology, luxury, and prestige. The allure of reaching destinations at speeds exceeding Mach 2, or more than twice the speed of sound, epitomizes the advancement of humanity’s conquest of the skies. The Concorde, with its distinctive “boom” as it broke the sound barrier, left an indelible mark on aviation history and popular culture. It was a vehicle of choice for celebrities, dignitaries, and jet-setters who craved not only the efficiency of faster travel but also the status that came with it.
Cultural Impact: The Concorde’s impact extended beyond its technical achievements. It was an emblem of aspiration and a testament to what human ingenuity could accomplish. The very idea of crossing oceans in such a short span of time captured the collective imagination, stirring dreams of a world where distance was no longer a barrier. The Concorde’s retirement marked the end of an era, leaving behind an impression of supersonic travel as a past glory that enthusiasts yearned to see resurrected.

Advancements Enabling Supersonic Comeback:

Supersonic travel is making a remarkable resurgence, driven by a convergence of advanced technologies that promise to redefine air travel once again. These advancements, spanning aerodynamics, propulsion, and noise reduction, are key factors behind the renewed interest in bringing supersonic flight back to the skies. Let’s explore how these innovations are shaping the future of high-speed aviation.

Aerodynamic Innovations: Engineers today are leveraging advanced computational fluid dynamics and materials science to design aircraft with streamlined shapes that minimize drag and optimize aerodynamic efficiency. This contributes to reducing the sonic boom generated during supersonic flight and enhances overall performance.
Quiet Supersonic Technology: Research into “low boom” technology aims to address the sonic boom’s disruptive effect on the ground by shaping the shockwaves in a way that mitigates the loud noise associated with breaking the sound barrier. This development holds the potential to make supersonic flight more socially acceptable, especially over populated areas.
Efficient Engines: Modern supersonic aircraft are equipped with engines that incorporate the latest in propulsion technology, drawing from advancements in both commercial and military aviation. These engines offer higher thrust-to-weight ratios, better fuel efficiency, and reduced emissions, enabling supersonic speeds while maintaining a focus on environmental sustainability.

Key Players in the Supersonic Renaissance

At the forefront of the supersonic resurgence are pioneering companies dedicated to designing and developing the next generation of high-speed aircraft. These key players are shaping the landscape of supersonic travel by envisioning innovative solutions that address the challenges of efficiency, noise reduction, and market demand. Let’s take a closer look at some of these visionary contenders.

Boom Supersonic: Boom Supersonic is leading the resurgence with the Overture airliner, which aims to accommodate around 65 to 88 passengers and fly at Mach 2.2 (over twice the speed of sound). The company has garnered significant attention and partnerships as it strives to make supersonic travel a reality for commercial aviation. In June 2021, United became the first U.S. airline to sign an aircraft purchase agreement with Boom Supersonic.
Aerion Supersonic : Aerion’s AS2 is designed to combine supersonic speed with environmental responsibility. This business jet aims to accommodate up to 12 passengers, emphasizing quieter sonic signatures, better fuel efficiency, and a commitment to sustainable aviation practices.
Spike Aerospace : Spike Aerospace’s S-512 Quiet Supersonic Jet envisions a business-focused supersonic aircraft that can carry up to 18 passengers. The company is working to balance speed, comfort, and practicality while addressing the challenges of minimizing sonic boom impact.

Challenges and Considerations

Regulatory Hurdles: Supersonic aircraft must adhere to stringent regulations surrounding sonic booms, especially over land. Collaborative efforts between aviation authorities, manufacturers, and regulatory bodies are required to develop standards that supersonic flight without causing excessive noise disturbances.
Environmental Concerns: The aviation industry’s push for sustainability includes addressing concerns related to noise pollution and carbon emissions associated with supersonic flight. Achieving a balance between high-speed travel and minimizing environmental impact remains a critical challenge.
Economic Viability: Developing, manufacturing, and operating supersonic aircraft comes with substantial costs. For the supersonic comeback to succeed, manufacturers must prove that there’s a sustainable market demand that justifies the investment in research, development, and production.
Market Demand: The success of supersonic travel hinges on understanding whether there’s a viable market for high-speed, premium air travel. Manufacturers need to gauge whether travellers are willing to pay a premium for the reduced travel times offered by supersonic flights.

Potential Impact on Air Travel

Supersonic travel holds the potential to transform the way we traverse the globe, offering unprecedented speed and efficiency. This potential impact extends beyond just faster flights—it could reshape business dynamics, redefine luxury travel, and even influence how we perceive distance. Let’s explore the potential consequences of a successful supersonic resurgence and how it might reshape the future of air travel.

Reduced Travel Times: Supersonic flight has the potential to drastically cut down travel times for long-haul flights, transforming intercontinental journeys that currently span several hours into mere hours, potentially revolutionizing the way people experience air travel.
Business Travel: The allure of rapid cross-border travel is particularly appealing to the business community. Supersonic flights could facilitate more efficient global business operations by enabling same-day meetings across continents.
Luxury and Niche Market: Initially, due to factors like higher costs of operation and limited aircraft availability, supersonic travel might be accessible to a luxury or business-focused market. Premium services, combined with rapid travel, could attract passengers seeking exclusivity and convenience.

Balancing economic viability, environmental sustainability, and regulatory considerations will play a crucial role in determining whether supersonic aircraft become a staple of future air travel, and whether the allure of reaching destinations at supersonic speeds will once again become a reality for passengers around the world.

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Credits:- Slider Image 1:- Boom Supersonic , Slider Image 2- Aerion Aerospace, Slider Image 3- Spike Aerospace .

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Will Supersonic Flying Actually Take Off? These Companies Think So.

From boom supersonic to spike aerospace, a handful of disruptors are trying to resuscitate the genre..

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See what’s fueling the return of supersonic passenger flights

More than two decades after the concorde’s last flight, several private companies are competing to bring supersonic travel to the masses.

In January, more than 100 people gathered at an airplane hangar in California to watch NASA unveil its X-59 demonstrator jet — a futuristic aircraft designed to travel faster than the speed of sound that has helped revive excitement for supersonic travel.

There hasn’t been a commercial supersonic passenger jet since the Concorde stopped flying in 2003. Since then, supersonic jets — which travel faster than the speed of sound — have been used primarily by the military. But the space agency’s unveiling of the X-59, designed and built in partnership with Lockheed Martin, comes as a growing number of private companies are vying to bring back supersonic travel for the commercial market.

Boom, Exosonic and Spike are among the companies promising modern supersonic travel that will be quieter, greener and more affordable than in the past. And at least one company — Hermeus — is exploring hypersonic flights, which would whisk passengers from New York to London in 90 minutes. But there are questions about whether these companies can make good on their claims given the economics of air travel and growing concerns about the impact of commercial aviation on the environment.

Here are five things to know about the effort to revive supersonic travel.

1. The sonic ‘boom’ could become a ‘soft thump’

NASA’s goal in developing the X-59 is to reduce the sonic boom — the thunder clap that resonates far and wide when an aircraft crosses the sound barrier. NASA scientists hope the demonstrator jet can prove that travel at supersonic speeds is possible without such earsplitting noise.

One key to quieting the boom comes from the plane’s design. The engine is mounted on top. The plane has a long, narrow nose and sculpted wing to help ensure the shock waves it creates as it speeds through the air are similar in strength and evenly spaced along the aircraft to create a gradual increase in pressure instead of the rapid jump that creates the loud bang, said Peter Coen, mission integration manager for the Quesst mission.

The sonic boom is around 105 PLdB, or perceived level of decibels, similar to that of the sound of a balloon popping next to you. In comparison, NASA says the X-59’s will sound closer to a car door slamming 20 feet away.

Turning the boom into a “soft thump,” as NASA hopes, could also improve the economics for commercial supersonic flights. It could mean an end to the U.S. ban on supersonic travel over land, which was enacted over noise concerns. That in turn could make commercial supersonic travel financially viable because airlines would be able to fly supersonic planes to more destinations.

Designing and building the X-59 took roughly five years. Testing is underway, and other phases of the project are expected to take another four. The total projected cost is $839 million, according to NASA.

2. There’s a flurry of interest from private companies

Nearly a half a dozen companies are competing to be the first to offer supersonic travel to the public — a curious interest at a time when much investment and innovation in transportation is focused on developing cleaner, more climate-friendly options that consume less fuel or alternative propulsion technologies such as batteries or hydrogen.

Denver-based Boom Supersonic is eyeing 2029 for the debut of its supersonic passenger jet, called Overture. The aircraft is expected to seat 64 to 80 passengers, according to Blake Scholl, the company’s chief executive. It will travel at Mach 1.7, or 1.7 times the speed of sound — more than twice as fast as a regular passenger airplane .

One company, Aerion — which had backing from major players in the industry including Boeing and Lockheed Martin to build a supersonic business jet — has already bowed out of the race. It shut down in 2021, unable to secure the funding to continue it work.

Industry analysts say venture capital and the mind-set that commercial supersonic sounds like a good idea has largely fueled the revival.

“It’s that Silicon Valley mentality that you put money down on 20 things for one that does well,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory. “Again, it sounds like a good idea. There’s a good market for air transport and people want to fly fast. We had Concorde in the past so it sounds right — so let’s put some money there.”

Bruce McClelland, a senior contributing analyst at aerospace and defense industry analysis firm the Teal Group, added, “A lot of projects attract money whether they’re completely viable or not.”

3. It promises sustainability

Companies say their new generation of supersonic jets will have a smaller carbon footprint, mostly because they will be fueled by sustainable aviation fuel. This is fuel is made from agricultural products including soybeans and animal fat.

But critics say that pledge ignores some significant realities. For instance, there isn’t enough sustainable aviation fuel for planes that exist today. The sustainable aviation fuel that does exist is more expensive — by some estimates two to four times the cost of fossil fuel.

And no matter the fuel, the reality is supersonic jets will always use more of it. According to a 2022 study by International Council on Clean Transportation, supersonic jets could use seven to nine times as much fuel as regular commercial aircraft while carrying fewer passengers. But NASA’s Coen contends that supersonic travel at least initially will be a very small part of overall CO2 emissions and a very small part of commercial aviation.

Even so, with airlines pledging to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, some say it’s hard to understand how supersonic jets fit into that framework.

4. It could be affordable for more people

The Concorde ended service because only a small slice of the flying public could ever afford a ticket, among other reasons, including a 2000 crash that killed 113 people and grounded Concorde’s supersonic planes for a year. But today’s entrepreneurs say supersonic travel can be affordable — though maybe not at first.

They point to Tesla and the burgeoning space tourism sector as an example of new modes of transportation that have and could eventually become accessible to a growing segment of the population.

Analysts have their doubts, though, given how difficult it is for commercial airlines to stay afloat. Supersonic jets will carry fewer passengers and consume greater quantities of fuel. If that fuel is sustainable aviation fuel, those costs increase even more.

“Essentially, the faster you fly, the more fuel you are burning per mile,” said Iain Boyd, director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “Supersonic is always going to be more expensive.”

5. It could get even faster

Hermeus, based in Atlanta is just one of the companies exploring the possibility of an even faster, hypersonic commercial passenger jet. While supersonic aircraft travel faster than the speed of sound, hypersonic aircraft travel at speeds five times faster or more.

Translated: that would make a flight between New York and London — a 90-minute trip — about the same as flying from New York to D.C. on today’s commercial aircraft.

The company’s Halcyon jet would travel at Mach 5 — or five times the speed of sound. A.J. Piplica, the company’s chief executive, said the company is laying the groundwork for Halcyon by building hypersonic drones that could be used for defense and national security purposes.

But the company is open about the technological challenges it faces developing such a fast aircraft. Today, there’s a less than 50 percent chance of getting Halcyon in the air, Piplica says — but he expects the odds to improve over time.

Even then, Hermeus — and all the start-ups — will have to convince the public to buy in and will have to grapple with growing concern about the impact of air travel on the environment. It could be a tall order.

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Future of Transportation

Can Supersonic Air Travel Fly Again?

The key to its revival may be a breakthrough in creating a quieter sonic boom. The challenges, though, are significant.

By Roy Furchgott

This article is part of our series on the Future of Transportation , which is exploring innovations and challenges that affect how we move about the world.

Despite the promise of two-hour flights from New York to Los Angeles, the supersonic airline industry never really got off the ground. That is largely because of physics: specifically, the sonic boom, the thunderclap noise made when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier (and continues as the aircraft flies beyond the barrier), which essentially doomed supersonic aviation as a viable business.

In 1960s-era tests, booms reportedly broke windows, cracked plaster and knocked knickknacks from shelves; in 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration forbade civilian supersonic aircraft from flying over land. Planes could go supersonic only over the ocean — most famously, the Concorde, the sleek British-French passenger plane that flew a handful of routes in less than half the average time. But potentially lucrative overland routes were off limits, restricting supersonic travel’s business prospects.

NASA and aviation entrepreneurs, however, are working to change that, with new aircraft designed to turn the boom into a “sonic thump” that is no louder than a car door that is being slammed 20 feet away. That may induce the F.A.A. to lift the ban, which could allow for two-hour coast-to-coast supersonic flights.

“The main reason NASA is working on this is to enable regulation for supersonic flight,” said Craig Nickol, NASA’s low-boom flight demonstration project manager. “The main objective is to open up new markets.”

The supersonic age dawned on Oct. 14, 1947, when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier while piloting the rocket-powered Bell X-1 over the Mojave Desert. In the following decades, the barrier was also broken by a succession of military jets, once by a passenger airliner (during a test flight of a Douglas DC-8 in 1961 ) and, ultimately, by regular commercial service from the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 and the Concorde, both long defunct.

The far more successful Concorde mostly traveled trans-Atlantic routes at about $6,000 to $7,000 per ticket for a three-and-a-half-hour flight in a cramped, noisy cabin, which was nonetheless considered glamorous. The Champagne-and-caviar flights were discontinued in 2003 after 27 years of intermittent profitability and one crash that killed 113 people. What the Concorde’s chief pilot called “the airliner of the future” was consigned to the past.

But the possibility of a supersonic renaissance was arriving even as the Concorde was on its way out. The slide rules and log tables used to design it had been pushed aside by supercomputers, which enabled engineers to test and tweak virtual aircraft designs comparatively cheaply and quickly.

That is exactly what Darpa, the research and development wing of the U.S. Defense Department, and NASA did in 2003 with the Shaped Sonic Boom Experiment, which confirmed that computer-designed modifications to a Northrop F-5E jet would hush the sonic boom in the way the software forecasted. “We flew it and measured it, and our model predicted the boom very well.,” Mr. Nickol said. “It was the first time we could prove that we could shape the sonic boom in a way we could predict.” That demonstration set the course for research to follow.

Taming the boom is complicated. Air has substance, which an aircraft slices through, much as a boat moves through water. A plane pushes air aside as it flies, creating ripples of air pressure. As an aircraft approaches the speed of sound, pressure builds up on surfaces like the nose and tail, creating waves of high pressure in front and low pressure behind. At the speed of sound, waves pile up and combine to reach the ground as an abrupt change in pressure that is heard as that thunderclap sound.

“It’s the change in the pressure that makes the sound,” Alexandra Loubeau, a NASA acoustics engineer, said. And that boom happens not just when a plane first breaks through the sound barrier; it also trails the jet continuously, like a boat’s wake.

NASA research led to the X-59 QueSST (for Quiet Supersonic Technology), a needle-beaked aircraft with lift and control surfaces spread over the 100-foot fuselage, of which 33 feet are nose.

The shock waves of a sonic boom cannot be avoided completely, but by minimizing the surfaces where pressure builds up — like the air intake and control surfaces — and spreading them over the length of a fuselage, shock waves can be reduced, shaped and aimed. “You can modify the aircraft to alter what the wave looks like when it hits the ground,” Mr. Nickol said. “What we are doing is trying to spread those waves out and make them weaker.”

NASA is not alone in trying to re-establish supersonic travel. Blake Scholl, chief executive of the Denver-based company Boom Supersonic , has declared an audacious goal of delivering passengers anywhere in the world within four hours for $100. He said Boom would begin with international transoceanic supersonic service, so that it would not have to worry about noise or wait for regulation changes, although domestic routes would mean more passengers, giving the business “a huge boost, a factor of two- or three-times in opportunity,” he said.

Mr. Scholl added that he thought that just making faster aircraft would not create a sustainable supersonic business; planes must also be cheaper and eco-friendly. The effort “has to be 100 percent carbon-neutral,” he said.

In his view, speed, economy and reduced emissions can be achieved through cleaner fuels and new engines designed expressly for supersonic flight. This approach contrasts with that of the Concorde, which used “converted military engines that were super-inefficient and rip-roaring loud,” Mr. Scholl said. (There are no realistic estimates on how or when such engines will be available.)

These engines — as well as modern materials, building methods and efficiencies introduced since the 1970s supersonic vogue — would let Boom operate for 75 percent less than the Concorde, Mr. Scholl said, although he added that his goal was to be 95 percent less expensive. Even so, he estimated initial fares at about the cost of a business-class ticket. “Still a long way from $100,” he acknowledged.

A handful of companies have proposed private supersonic business jets to whisk international bankers, chief executives and hedge fund managers around the globe in swift, exclusive opulence. But despite the stated intentions of established players such as Gulfstream and credible upstarts like Spike Aerospace , private supersonic jets have yet to streak across the skies.

The chief barrier appears to be economic. It is the norm for aircraft to take longer and cost more to build than projected, and private supersonic jets are no exception.

NASA has government backing and shares much of its research so that any aerospace company can benefit from it, although it does not work with any specific airline or manufacturer. But without government financing, it is tougher for companies like Gulfstream and Boom. There is a cautionary tale in the experience of Aerion Supersonic, a company of aviation veterans that was underwritten by the billionaire Robert Bass, in partnership with Boeing, and that claimed preorders of $11.2 billion. Unable to raise enough cash to keep the doors open, Aerion shut down in May and is now being liquidated in a Florida court.

While supersonic travel would be a boon to international trade, there are too many unknowns to predict its viability as a business, said Bijan Vasigh, who teaches economics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “Are there 50 people a day who want to fly to London?” he asked. “Do we know how much people are willing to pay?”

He added: “We do our best analysis, but everything in the future could change. The best economist cannot find the answer.”

Adam Pilarski, an aviation economist and consultant, agreed that the numbers were uncertain, but still expects to see supersonic aircraft produced, although not by a major aircraft manufacturer. “It will make all of their other planes obsolete,” he said.

Instead, he looks to a maverick outfit on the order of Elon Musk’s venture with Tesla or Space-X. “When Musk started going to space, who believed him? Nobody!” Mr. Pilarski said. “The C.P.A.-type thinks, ‘How much people will pay?’ Who cares?”

Although Mr. Pilarski predicts eventual success for a supersonic airline, he is reluctant to place any bets. “Will Blake Scholl make it?” he asked. “I don’t know, he is a nice boy. But would I put my money on it, and grandchildren’s education fund on it? No.”

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United Airlines is buying 15 supersonic aircraft from Boom Supersonic

Depending on safety tests, united may increase its order to 50 supersonic jets.

By Andrew J. Hawkins , transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.

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United Airlines has agreed to purchase 15 supersonic aircraft from Boom Supersonic, with an option to increase that order to 50 jets, the companies announced Thursday. That agreement, though, is still subject to change depending on the outcome of United’s safety testing and also Boom’s ability to deliver on its promises despite never having built or flown a full-scale supersonic jet before.

If Boom’s Overture jets pass inspection, the plan is for them to be rolled out in 2025, fly in 2026, and expected to carry passengers by 2029. At that point, Boom claims its supersonic jets will eventually be able to travel from New York to London — normally a seven-hour flight — in just 3.5 hours, or Los Angeles to Sydney — typically a 15-hour trip — in six hours and 45 minutes. Boom has said that tickets will cost $5,000 per seat, but United says it’s too early to announce pricing.

“a stellar flight experience”

“Boom’s vision for the future of commercial aviation, combined with the industry’s most robust route network in the world, will give business and leisure travelers access to a stellar flight experience,” United CEO Scott Kirby said.

It’s the latest deal for Boom, the startup that has been focused on resurrecting commercial supersonic air travel. In addition to United, the company has contracts or memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce and the US Air Force. Boom has raised $240 million in funding and fielded preorders from Virgin Group (which is also working on its own supersonic jet ) and Japan Airlines.

To be sure, Boom has only just revealed its first full-scale XB-1 demonstrator aircraft , which is scheduled to take its inaugural flight in 2021. At 71 feet long, the XB-1 is a scaled-down version of the full production model that Boom hopes to have ready for passengers by 2029. The prototype only has room for the pilot, while the commercial-ready version will eventually hold up to 88 passengers and crew.

The demonstrator is expected to reach speeds of Mach 1.3, thanks to its three J85-15 engines, which are manufactured by General Electric, primarily for military aircraft. By comparison, the full-scale Overture jet will be 205 feet long, have a cruising altitude of 60,000 feet, and achieve speeds of Mach 1.7.

Both companies claim the jets will be “net-zero carbon from day one [and] optimized to run on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel.” But neither provided additional details about what kinds of fuel they would be using or how they would achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

Environmental groups are worried that faster speeds will equal more pollution into the environment. The global aviation industry produces around 2 percent of all human-induced CO2 emissions, but supersonic jets are known to be far more polluting. Boom says it will be carbon-neutral as a goal, but simply put, it takes more fuel to go faster.

it takes more fuel to go faster

Boom is behind schedule, having promised to begin flight tests by 2017 in the hopes of ferrying real passengers in 2020. Now, that timeline has been set back nearly a decade. There hasn’t been a supersonic commercial jet in operation since Concorde, constructed by French aerospace company Aérospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation, was retired after 27 years of service in 2003 . Concorde was a gas-guzzler and a money-loser for Airbus.

Boom is also testing new technologies that could muffle the sonic boom that occurs when a supersonic airplane breaks the sound barrier. These cannon-blast booms led Congress to ban supersonic jets from flying over US soil in 1973. But in October 2018, President Trump signed a bill directing the Federal Aviation Administration to consider lifting the ban. It’s unclear where President Joe Biden, who has made infrastructure and climate change a hallmark of his early days in office, stands on supersonic travel.

Update June 3rd, 12:46PM ET: United said it would purchase 15 jets from Boom Supersonic, with the option to buy 35 more, for a total of 50 aircraft. Also, Boom has said that its tickets would cost $5,000 per seat, but United hasn’t announced pricing yet. This story has been updated to reflect these facts.

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Will We Ever Fly Supersonically Over Land?

In 1947, Chuck Yeager, the Air Force test pilot, became the first person to break the sound barrier. He did it in a tiny, orange-colored plane called the Bell X-1—essentially, a cockpit and two wings connected to a rocket engine. Like all supersonic flyers, Yeager trailed a sonic boom behind him. The principle behind the boom is simple: sound travels through the air in the form of compression waves, so called because they occur as air gets denser and sparser; as a plane flies, the waves expand in all directions at the speed of sound. But when the plane itself exceeds that speed—at around seven hundred and seventy miles per hour at sea level, or around six hundred and sixty at cruising altitude—it catches up to the waves expanding in front of it. They begin to build up, and this single, merged wave reaches the ground all at once, creating a boom. A zone of low pressure follows—the trough of the wave—and then normal air pressure returns, creating its own sound. (Often, sonic booms go boom-boom.) It’s no coincidence that sonic booms sound like thunder; thunder is a sonic boom, caused by shock waves expanding around lightning bolts. Bullets travel fast enough to cause sonic booms, as do the tails of whips. Contrary to what you might imagine, a plane causes a sonic boom not just once, when it breaks the sound barrier, but continuously for the entire time that it’s supersonic. The boom sweeps over everything below it—a kind of sonic broom that is about a mile wide for every thousand feet of plane altitude.

Plans for the plane that would become the Concorde—the first commercial “supersonic transport,” or S.S.T.—began in the nineteen-fifties. NASA began working on supersonic transport upon its founding, in 1958, eventually settling on a design by Boeing. But these initiatives started before sonic booms were fully understood. In a technical summary written in 1960, NASA scientists warned that “shock-wave noise pressures” might be “of sufficient intensity to damage parts of ground building structures such as windows, in addition to causing annoyance.” The full extent of that annoyance, however, would take a while to gauge. Over ten months in 1961 and 1962, the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) ran Operation Bongo, flying B-58 bombers over St. Louis and asking citizens about the hundred and fifty or so booms the planes created; the authors concluded only that, after repeated booms, “some reaction may be expected.” (“Sonic boom’s a top-priority public-relations problem,” an Air Force major told The New Yorker , in 1962.) A clearer picture emerged in 1964, when Operation Bongo II created more than a thousand sonic booms over Oklahoma City. People complained of interruptions to their sleep, conversations, and peace of mind, and about the occasional crack in plaster or glass. By the end, about one in four said that they could not learn to live with the noise. These studies, along with tens of thousands of claims against the Air Force for property damage—horses and turkeys had supposedly died or gone insane—led the F.A.A. to ban civil overland supersonic flight, in 1973.

There are many reasons why the Concorde, which flew for the first time in 1969, stopped flying in 2003. Among them is the fact that the service was allowed to reach supersonic speeds only over the ocean. This month, United Airlines announced plans to purchase planes from Boom Supersonic, a Denver startup that aims to produce a new generation of supersonic passenger planes. But Boom’s plane, the Overture, will still boom, and so remain an overseas beast, at least at full throttle. Overland supersonic travel—J.F.K. to S.F.O. in three hours, more or less—depends upon the invention of a quieter boom.

Only in the past twenty years, with enhanced computer models of aerodynamics, has a kind of sonic thump become possible. “The basic theory for sonic-boom shaping actually existed during Concorde’s development, back in the nineteen-sixties,” Michael Buonanno, an air-vehicle lead at Lockheed Martin, told me. Unfortunately, he went on, “computers weren’t powerful enough at the time to run the advanced simulations necessary to really dial in” the ideal shape. In 2003 and 2004, using better simulations, NASA flew the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator, a Northrop Grumman F-5 with a nose job; researchers saved money by grafting a removable portion onto the underside of a preëxisting jet, calling the resulting aircraft the Pelican, because of its bulbous profile. In 2006 and 2007, NASA pursued a similar idea in partnership with Gulfstream, fitting a McDonnell Douglas F-15 with a “Quiet Spike,” which protruded some twenty-four feet from its nose.

In both cases, the idea was to round off the peak of the leading compression wave, turning a sharp-edged tsunami into a more gradual swell. Planes, with their distinctive shapes, actually cause many distinct wavelets; as the wavelets approach the ground, they coalesce into the bow and tail waves that cause the booms. If you can modify the plane’s shape so that the waves don’t combine—by spreading them out, say, by means of an extra-long nose—then the sonic booms will be of a lower intensity. In this regard, the Pelican and the Quiet Spike were modest successes; their booms weren’t quite so thunderous. In 2015, JAXA , the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, confirmed the basic finding with a smaller-scale project, called D-SEND . The agency dropped a sleek, twenty-six-foot unpowered glider from a balloon nineteen miles above Sweden. It reached Mach 1.39—that is, 1.39 times the speed of sound—and produced a relatively flattened wave.

NASA ’s current project, the X-59 QueSST (for Quiet SuperSonic Technology), aims both to explore low-boom tech and to study community response to muffled booms. “The airplane is essentially just a boom, or, in this case, a thump generator,” David Richwine, NASA ’s deputy project manager for technology on QueSST, said. Acousticians have many measures of loudness; NASA is using perceived decibel level, or PLdB. The Concorde’s boom was around a hundred and three PLdBs, roughly the loudness of nearby thunder, or a car door slamming while you’re inside the car; seventy-five PLdBs, NASA ’s goal for QueSST, is about an eighth as loud—the equivalent of distant thunder, or a car door slamming twenty feet away. (Like decibels or earthquakes, PLdBs are measured on a logarithmic scale.) Lockheed Martin is currently constructing the plane, which will fly over American cities in 2024. (Buonanno is the company’s chief engineer on the project.)

With its pointy nose and delta wings, the one-seat X-59 resembles a mini-Concorde in some ways and differs in others. It will be a hundred feet long, with a wingspan of thirty feet, an engine centered on the tail, and more surfaces than appear necessary: horizontal stabilizers at both the bottom and top of the tail, and also on the nose. “All those are used to tune those shocks,” David Richardson, the X-59’s program director at Lockheed Martin, said. The team hopes to stretch the front of the boom wave from a single millisecond out to twenty or thirty. (“I’ve been at the Skunk Works for about thirty years, doing a lot of different programs,” Richardson added. “This is my first unclassified program—so it’s really good to be able to talk about it not only to the world but to my family.”)

Ultimately, by running a sort of Operation Bongo III, the X-59 team hopes to persuade the F.A.A. to revisit its 1973 ban on supersonic transport; the agency might agree, instead, to issue certification standards for commercial S.S.T. The plane contains other technology that might translate to a commercial design. One promising feature is the eXternal Vision System, or X.V.S. The X-59 is too pointy for a cockpit canopy, so the team has equipped it with high-definition cameras and monitors; pilots will stare at screens allowing them to look “through” the plane, in a kind of augmented reality. The designers of the Concorde, which was similarly pointy, allowed its pilots to see the runway by means of an elaborate mechanism that physically bent the plane’s nose downward before landing—adding great weight and expense to an already over-budget aircraft. Lockheed Martin likely wouldn’t make a commercial version of the jet, but it could partner with other firms; the company predicts that a passenger version of the X-59 would be two hundred and thirty feet long, about the length of a Boeing 777, and carry around fifty people.

A few companies are already pursuing low-boom supersonic passenger planes. Gulfstream has obtained patents in the area, and a company called Spike Aerospace says that it’s using “Quiet Supersonic Flight Technology” to develop an eighteen-passenger business jet with a sonic boom of seventy-five PLdBs. (Neither company replied to inquiries.)

Exosonic, a California startup, is conducting scale-model wind-tunnel tests of what would be a seventy-seat supersonic plane. Its approach is similar to NASA ’s: “What we do is we change the shape of the sonic-boom wave form to something that is far less audible,” John Morgenstern, the head of aerodynamics and boom at Exosonic, told me. (One of Morgenstern’s colleagues has described Exosonic’s goal as a sonic “puff.”) Last September, the company received a million-dollar military contract to explore the possibility of using the plane as an Air Force One. Morgenstern joined Exosonic in April, after working at Lockheed Martin as a designer on the X-59; in his new role, he has different variables to balance. The plane must be more than just a thump generator—its design must optimize boom intensity, passenger safety, engine noise at takeoff and landing, and fuel efficiency. (The International Council on Clean Transportation has estimated that supersonic planes will burn three to nine times as much fuel per passenger as regular ones—a good reason, as Bill McKibben wrote , earlier this month, for trying Zoom, not Boom.) Exosonic’s plane will fly at Mach 1.8, which is an ideal speed for S.S.T.s: slower planes reduce flight times insufficiently, whereas faster ones require noisier engines. I asked Morgenstern if it was risky to invest in a commercial low-boom plane while overland supersonic flight was still banned. “I would say it’s less risky than going out there with a plane that doesn’t have that technology,” he said. He sketched a scenario in which regulations change around 2028 and Exosonic begins test flights four or five years later.

In 2016, the Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank at George Mason University, published “ Make America Boom Again ,” a white paper arguing that, given new technology, we should bring back supersonic transport. The paper’s authors, Eli Dourado and Samuel Hammond, lamented “the stagnation and regress in supersonic aviation,” which had broken “a trend of rapid progress” in air travel that had begun with the Wright brothers. And yet there are reasons to believe that, even if it were allowed, domestic supersonic flight would have limited commercial appeal. Richwine, of NASA , told me that he thinks S.S.T. could cut some flight times in half. But, he said, supersonic flight wouldn’t proportionately reduce over-all travel time until we fixed our infrastructure: How much better is flying from L.A.X. to J.F.K. in two or three hours if you spend twice that time in airports and traffic?

For most of the years during which the Concorde flew, a traveller could walk into an airport and straight to the gate. In 2013, Doug Robinson, a Utah newspaper columnist, recalled the speed of pre-9/11 airports: “In one of the greatest athletic feats of my life, I once arrived at the curb of the airport three minutes before my plane was scheduled to leave and sprinted up the stairs and down the concourse to the gate, making it just seconds before they closed the door to the plane,” he wrote. Today, with increased security, airlines recommend that passengers arrive two hours early for domestic flights, and three hours early for international flights—about the time that supersonic speeds might save. And so there’s more than one sense in which supersonic flight is a return to the past. With NASA ’s fancy technology, we’ll be back to where we were twenty years ago.

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Simple Flying

Russia looks to join the supersonic flight 2.0 race.

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Russia's Boeing 757 Rival Tu-214 Set For Delivery Next Year But Only With 3 Person Cockpit

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The Russian Federation is looking to create a supersonic passenger aircraft research center to join the new race for a supersonic commercial aircraft. Now, with the help of a grant from the federal government, the aim will be to establish a world-class scientific center capable of designing a low-sonic boom aircraft.

Creating the plane would also involve the study of material strength, acoustics, vibrations, emissions, fuel efficiency, and the use of artificial intelligence. Spearheading the new initiative is the Moscow-based Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, who, during the study, is expected to obtain breakthroughs in new aircraft technology.

Cockpit augmented-reality technology

Things already being talked about include new innovative designs that can cut down on noise. There is also talk of using augmented-reality technology on the flight deck. In charge of overseeing the project will be the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, an organization that was founded by President Vladimir Putin in 2018.

When speaking about the project's goals, aviation website FlightGlobal quotes Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute director-general Kirill Sypalo as saying,

"Within the framework of this project, we plan to work out the fundamental problems of future supersonic aviation."

The 49-year-old Moscow Aviation Institute graduate discussed how the institute had established a group of companies, including high profile names like the GosNIIAS aviation systems center and the Gromov flight-test center. Along with these two big names in Russian aerospace is the Baranov aircraft engine institute.

The government will spend $204 million

Sypalo says that the new science center would look at the viability of supersonic flight while at the same time what environmental impact it would have on the planet. Under the mandated government funding, 60 applications were received looking to get a slice of the Rb15.5 billion ($205 million) that will be spread over the next four years.

The research into supersonic passenger flight came under the field titled intelligent transport systems. Others included robotics, healthcare, energy efficiency, social studies, and agriculture.

The idea of Russia wanting to have another look at supersonic passenger planes is not that far fetched and something President Vladimir Putin talked about while visiting Kazan earlier this year.

The new plane's idea would be based on the Tu-160 strategic bomber, the largest and heaviest Mach 2 supersonic military aircraft ever built. The state-controlled international television network, Russia Today, quotes the president as saying,

"We now need to go back to supersonic passenger travel. We should think about it."

When speaking about a civilian version of the Tu-160, Putin added,

"Everything is running like clockwork, so why not also create a supersonic passenger plane?"

The Tu-44 was too costly

This isn't the first time Putin talked about building a supersonic passenger plane, having commented on it last year after watching a test flight of the new updated Tu-160.

Following the flight, he mentioned Russia's supersonic Tu-144 passenger plane, saying it was too costly at the time. He said the economic situation in Russia now is different and that there are Russian companies capable of operating a Russian-built supersonic commercial aircraft.

Can you see Russia building a supersonic passenger plane in the future? Please tell us what you think in the comments.

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Supersonic Plane Travel Is Closer Than You Thought

A quest for a quiet boom

A supersonic jet with a business-class feel

How will supersonic air travel impact travelers?

See 7 supersonic passenger-jet concepts that will connect cities in as little as one hour and fly up to 9 times faster than the speed of sound

The age of supersonic commercial air travel started in 1973 with the first transatlantic crossing of the famous Concorde aircraft.

Jointly developed by Aérospatiale — a predecessor of Airbus Industries — and the British Aircraft Corporation, the high-speed jet could fly up to 1,350 miles per hour, or twice the speed of sound.

The first passenger flight occurred on January 21, 1976, when British Airways flew the Concorde from London to Bahrain in just four hours — two and half hours faster than subsonic jets.

Air France started Concorde operations the same day, flying from Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Dakar, Senegal.

The Concorde's early success pushed British Airways and Air France, the only two operators of the jet — with seven each — to add more routes, like Paris to New York and London to Washington, DC.

However, over time, the jet proved to be too expensive and too noisy to maintain. A deadly crash in 2000 further accelerated its retirement, which came in 2003 after 27 years of commercial service.

Since the Concorde's demise, the industry has not seen another supersonic jet because manufacturers are still trying to solve the challenges the iconic plane faced, like efficiency, cost, and noise.

However, companies worldwide have jets in development, and the Federal Aviation Administration has expressed its support for the reintroduction of supersonic travel in the US "as long as safety parameters are followed."

Texas-based startup Venus Aerospace is the most recent manufacturer to unveil a new supersonic jet — except the company hopes to go hypersonic, at Mach 9, meaning the plane will fly nine times faster than the speed of sound.

According to Venus Aerospace, its Stargazer jet will connect any two cities on Earth in an hour or less by flying along the edge of space.

The jet, dubbed a "spaceplane," will have a capacity of just 12 passengers and be powered by zero-emission rocket engines.

Other companies are also hoping to enter the hypersonic market. China's Space Transportation, also known as Beijing Lingkong Tianxing, is developing a 12-passenger jet that can fly 4,350 miles per hour, connecting New York and Beijing in one hour.

The ultra-high-speed jet concept, which is planned to begin flight testing in 2023, is not the company's first product. Lingkong Tianxing has also been developing reusable rockets, which are the foundation of its future commercial spaceplane.

NASA and Lockheed Martin have partnered to develop the X-59 supersonic aircraft, which is part of the Quesst mission. While not a passenger concept, the supersonic jet will help minimize sonic booms over land.

This will allow commercial supersonic planes to travel faster than the speed of sound over populated areas, which the Concorde was not permitted to do.

Lockheed Martin is planning to build on top of its testbed by creating a 40-seater ultra-fast commercial aircraft, which it calls Quiet Supersonic Technology Airliner (QSTA). The plane is planned to fly at Mach 1.8, or about 1,380 miles per hour.

Meanwhile, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the country's national space agency, is developing an unnamed supersonic jet that will carry 50 passengers and have a sonic boom 50% smaller than the Concorde's.

The agency is developing the aircraft in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Subaru. JAXA is also partnered with NASA on the X-59 QueSST project that will help the agency reduce its own jet's sonic boom.

US-based Exosonic is also developing a quiet, low-boom supersonic passenger plane. The 70-seater jet is planned to fly at Mach 1.8, with tickets costing the same as a regular business-class fare.

In 2020, Exosonic was awarded a grant from the US Air Force to build a supersonic plane that could serve as the future Air Force One.

The Air Force's Life Cycle Management Center said the deal will push the development of a "low-boom supersonic executive transport aircraft that will allow key decision makers and teams to travel around the world in half the time it takes now."

South African billionaire Priven Reddy's company, EON Aerospace, is also trying to get into the supersonic market with EON nxt-01, an environmentally friendly ultra-fast jet.

The plane would fly at Mach 1.9 and have up to 88 seats, with the goal to run on sustainable aviation fuel and operate with net-zero carbon emissions. EON hopes to get the jet into service by 2029.

Colorado-based Boom Supersonic, which is developing a Concorde-like plane known as Overture, is the only startup that reports having orders on the books.

United Airlines has purchased 15 of the high-speed Overture aircraft in a deal worth $3 billion. The jet is scheduled to enter commercial service with the airline in 2029.

The $200 million jet will fly at Mach 1.7, or about 1,300 miles per hour, and connect cities like Newark, New Jersey, and Frankfurt, Germany, in four hours. United estimates it will carry 65-88 passengers in an all-business cabin.

Japan Airlines also invested $10 million in Boom as part of a preorder for 20 Overture jets in 2017. The company plans to carry 45-55 business-class passengers and originally expected a mid-2020s entry to service, but there has been no update since.

If United's plan stays on track, the airline will become the first commercial carrier to fly a supersonic plane in regularly scheduled passenger service since the Concorde.

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