As someone who travels cross-atlantic semi-occasionally my price threshold for a 50% shorter flight is 25% increased cost. This is coming from a relatively well off middle-aged software engineer.<p>It is hard to think that this tech will ever be common besides a few "high status" (NY->London) routes like the concord was. It is my understanding that fuel costs increase as speed increases so there is no way this could ever be cheaper than non-hypersonic flights. But of course there is a market even if it is very limited, just like there was one for the concord. I expect this tech might displace some of the private plane market.<p>To me it seems more likely that we will see short-haul smaller electric aircraft take over for even cheaper costs with more stops along the way. Think like NY -> Açores -> London or LA -> Hawaii -> Japan.<p>edit: reading about this it seems the fuel-efficiency calculation is not as simple as I thought, there are some savings to be had in fuel by going above sound-speed. It seems the lowest fuel-efficiency happens at just below speed of sound. I am no expert in the subject though.
Next thread in sequence:<p><i>Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42853633">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42853633</a> - Jan 2025 (79 comments)
A cautionary video "Is Commercial Supersonic Doomed to Fail?"<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je5R3_br8So" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je5R3_br8So</a><p>Boom is having to develop their own engines, which is a huge ask, especially on the schedule they are promising.<p>(spoiler: the video's answer is "yes")
What engines are they using? I thought Boom was having to develop their own engines after everyone else pulled out, but assuming they haven't built their own functional supersonic engine yet?
Related:<p><i>The only photo of the Concorde flying at supersonic speed</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42834341">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42834341</a>
Am I the only one who wonders about the market for this? How many will actually choose 2-4x price vs business class? With inflight high speed internet, and video conferencing in general, the number of people who can’t spare 3 hours (during which they can be doing other work) seems small?
I think a lot of people here are missing the point. The idea isn't to just replicate Concorde's flights across the Atlantic Ocean - or any stretch of water for that matter. Their plan would be to have this thing flying over land. The noise issue will be solved either through some feat of engineering or political lobbying. The cynic in me believes it will be mostly the latter.