I know why the Concordes are gone, but I’m still not happy about it.
Flying on one was on my bucket list.
One of the problems with it, I think, was the fact that it was basically only used for routes from western Europe to eastern America. That was the only route they decided made economic sense, and had the advantage of being mostly over ocean where nobody would complain about the sonic booms, but cutting an eight hour trip down to a four hour trip simply wasn't that dramatic. For commercial supersonic flight to really take off, it's needs the really long haul routes and I think that's what could make a big difference with any future attempt - India's growth, China's - it the cross-Pacific and cross-Asia/Europe routes that have the distance to really make a huge difference.
I'd like a London to Melbourne route, but I doubt that would be viable. :)
No, at least not for a long long time. The old adage “speed costs money, how fast do you want to go” is more true in airplanes than cars. As well, the mountains of money required get considerably higher.
Trips to the moon and supersonic commercial travel are all past tense. We have allowed our country to be indebted and sold out and unemployed. We had a world class country that once produced tangible products that we consumed and that made us prosperous as a nation.
The greedy crooked bankers (the ones Congress bailed out with trillions of our declining money, along with help from the Fed) somehow convinced scheming politicians on a puppet string to allow a select few to get rich by globalizing our economy, while we lose our sovereignty.
Illegal immigration and multi-culturalism are a major sidebar of their globalization effort. Financialization by Wall St money changers instead of industrialization of America by CEOs is one big root cause of our decline.
... excessive noise from takeoff and from sonic booms that occurred when the plane would break the sound barrier. It also meant keeping flights over water in order to not terrify people...
Not so much that sonic booms scared people. It was one of the many sounds of freedom. What P.O’ed people was when sonic booms from lower flying aircraft broke windows in homes, which they frequently did.
People living near old cold war SAC bases also used to complain when those big multi engine propeller pusher engined B36’s used to shake houses to their foundation from the subsonic shock wave from those mighty engines when they flew overhead even at altitude.
700mph [roughly the top speed of jets like the 747,737..etc] is fast enough for me. But then I’m not a weary corporate guy who has to fly several times a week... it might make a huge difference to them.
I can’t imagine how boring it would be to routinely fly from NYC to Tokyo every week...arghhh :-( One of those 15x scramjets would be very welcome for that route.
Although Concordes operated at profit, they raked in a lot less money than conventional flights …When you have so few of them and so many more conventional planes, then of course they would bring in less comparative total revenue.
The new SST--most likely a private jet--will sport the following features:
1. A shape designed to reduce the sonic boom to essentially inaudible levels even flying at top speed.
2. Will be limited to a top speed of Mach 1.6 (1,054 mph). This allows more extensive use of composite structural materials to reduce airplane weight, since structural heating at Mach 1.6 is much lower than the Mach 2.0+ speeds of the Concorde.
3. The Mach 1.6 top speed means a far less expensive afterburning system for the engines, which means lower fuel consumption and lower emissions.
4. It will seat up to 14 passengers.
5. The range of the plane will be somewhere between 4,900 and 6,500 nautical miles, depending on how much supersonic flying is needed. Transatlantic flights will be done at Mach 1.6 top speed, while transpacific flights will be done at Mach 1.2 to 1.25 to reduce fuel consumption.
5. Will use the variable cycle engine I mentioned earlier to reduce takeoff noise levels so it complies with the ICAO Stage IV noise standard.
Won’t happen again. Too expensive, too “booming,” and with the luxury super liners there’s no need to be there in half the time.