Faster air travel cheap? Yes, please

[GrantDawg]

Supersonic passenger jets are coming in the next few years that will be carbon neutral and travel at Mach 2.2. The goal of anywhere in the world in four hours for $100 might be more than 20 years away, but it does look like the passenger fleet is about to get smaller but much, much faster.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/b...cks/index.html

[NobodyHere]

I'm putting this in the "I'll believe it when I see it" category.

[PilotMan]

Or you know, you could buy like 10 hamburger combo meals. You make the call.

[albionmoonlight]

You don't often see bots spend as much time building up credibility on a board at GrantDawg, but I guess the airline industry can pay for really high-end AI.

[bhlloy]

Ha! Well played sir.

In all honesty, I think the airline industry will push for all these improvements just for their own survival and then find reasons to still charge $1500 for flights. Probably more now they are so quick and convenient for the customer, amirite?

[GrantDawg]

Boop bee boop ...*cough* *cough* I mean, it looks like two company have plans to start production on supersonic passenger planes in the next two years. Aerion looks like the higher end one, and Boom more commuter based. Aerion has Boeing and GE as investors, and Boom already has 6 billion dollars in orders.
As a kid, I was always fascinated by the Concorde. It just seems like airtravel hasn't had any really cool innovations since then. I have long heard rumors that faster travel would eventually come, and look like it is finally around the corner. Imagine New York to London in 3 hours? That is just cool.

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[PilotMan]

Not the same company as in the op article, but same concept.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/21/aeri...ness-jets.html

I imagine time it'll come for the others eventually.

Bottom line customer pricing doesn't allow for profitable, luxury, supersonic travel. The Concorde died after deregulation. Those times haven't changed. Airlines today focus on fuel economy to save money, fast planes no matter how modern, must still deal with the laws of physics.

[PilotMan]

I'll leave this here without a whole lot of comment. Companies commit to orders as a form of investing. It gives the manufacturer the ability to count that as income and get loans and more investment cash as part of it's overall cash flow. It's clearly a budding frontier, but I'll still believe it when I see it, but the idea that a company out there is willing to throw some money in the pot for it really is intriguing.

United Airlines agrees to purchase 15 Boom supersonic airliners – TechCrunch

[albionmoonlight]

I get the sense that the original SST shut down b/c it was too expensive.

I wonder if now the economics are different. There are a lot more ultra rich out there than there used to be.

$10,000 a head to get from NYC to London in an afternoon? There's probably a lot more people willing and able to pay that now than there was 40 years ago.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I get the sense that the original SST shut down b/c it was too expensive.

I wonder if now the economics are different. There are a lot more ultra rich out there than there used to be.

$10,000 a head to get from NYC to London in an afternoon? There's probably a lot more people willing and able to pay that now than there was 40 years ago.

The promise with these are actually "affordable" cost. Making it carbon neutral and affordable is going to be a high bar.

[orisho]

It seems that every other month a new startup announces they will build a supersonic passenger plane and a few incredulous articles/press releases are written about them. And then they quietly disappear after a couple big investment rounds.

[tarcone]

Why would you name your airplane building company, Boom?

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Why would you name your airplane building company, Boom?

Y'know, that seems like a pretty fair question.

[GrantDawg]

I don't know about cheap, but this is way cool:

The future of search and rescue is here.

�� Learn more about how technology could change the world in the next few years: https://t.co/vPwWRkLqFL pic.twitter.com/AOqTxDnflH

— World Economic Forum (@wef) July 6, 2021

[GrantDawg]

Archer Aircraft just announced they are building a 118 million dollar plant in my home town. They are going to be producing EVTOL aircraft to act as a kind of air taxi service. It is supposed to be completed 2024, and will produce 650 planes a year to start, growing to 2,300 a year eventually. Way cool.

[Edward64]

It is pretty cool.

Archer eVTOL Aircraft | Engineering Emotion - YouTube

I won't be an early adopter for sure. Do wonder how these EVTOL, drones, small aircraft etc. will play nice in the air.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

It is pretty cool.

Archer eVTOL Aircraft | Engineering Emotion - YouTube

I won't be an early adopter for sure. Do wonder how these EVTOL, drones, small aircraft etc. will play nice in the air.

I wonder about that as well. Will they be sending flight plans with these? Will they use some kind of automated ordination system? I think it is cool, but I would be really scared to use one.