More than fifteen years after the last flight of the Concorde, a number of firms are pushing ideas for a new supersonic airliner, but just as many experts doubt one will ever be built.
Instead, many of them say, there is likely to be a market for corporate jets that break the sound barrier, because construction and development costs are lower for a smaller plane, and in that market, making a profit per set is not an issue, at least for those in a big hurry or fronting a big ego.
Even those who believe there’s a market for an airline-size plane, such as Boom Aviation, which says it has pre-orders for 30 of its planned 55-seaters from Virgin Atlantic and Japan Airlines, know it’s a long shot and a long way off. For now, Boom is only building a single-seat prototype that it hopes to test later this year.
Like the Concorde, any new full-size SST would face both economic and environmental issues, and while some of the developers believe they have developed ways to avoid the ‘sonic boom’ of the Concorde, there is still the issue of how much damage would be done by fleets of them in the upper atmosphere.
There is also the issue of cost. A small airliner such as Boom’s would almost certainly have to be all first or business class to have a chance at profit, and there are likely not many routes with enough demand to sustain a half-the-time for twice-the-price model that the Concorde followed.
On the business-jet side, companies in the race include some formidable contenders, including Aerion, which is developing a 12-seater with money invested by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Lockheed has teamed with NASA on a plane that is aimed at commercial aviation but could produce a business jet. A prototype is supposed to fly in 2022. The developers claim its design would reduce sonic boom to “a sound about as loud as a car door closing.”
Don’t buy your tickets yet, folks!
