Supersonic travel may return

[tontod]

Would be nice if its a reality in the near future:

supersonic travel

Would be nice to cut down on the ~16 hr. flight that I'll be taking in November from Newark, NJ to New Delhi, India. And hopefully it'll be somewhat less than the $10k that the Concorde cost.

 

[SunSamurai]

The parties will never allow it. Damn the representitives of such and such! Slippery slope! Downhill from here on out. When will it end? The st and nd amendment says this and that!

How dare you, sir!

 

[MovingTarget]

It would be nice to finally have supersonic travel affordable to the masses. The concord was great for its time, but it was doomed from the start due to cost concerns. The regulation of supersonic flight isn't as big of a barrier imho.

 

[Brigandier]

Yes! THis tid-bit actually makes me a bit excited. I was quite disappointed to see business give up on super-sonic flight so easily. WE live in the twenty-first century, we should have super-duper sonic jets. And flying cars...and wearable computers...and virtual reality...mumble banter....

 

[techs]

Uh, a reading of the article is really pessimistic. They are saying it's only a possibility, but very little is being done by companies like Boeing, and that a whole host of problems still need to be resolved.
And it would seem the biggest problem would be how to make a 75 seat SST profitable.
The Concorde lost money all the time and was only kept running by subsidies.
No, I don't think an SST is in the near future.
What I see is the flying experience expanding to allow travelers to be more in touch as they travel, and capable of working on long flights as easily as if they are in their own office.

 

[Moonbeam]

It needs to be solar powered.

 

[tontod]

Maybe one of the startup companies like Armadillo Aerospace or Virgin Galactic will pick up on this. Something like this is expensive to start up and inherently risky, so a company like Boeing who is watching their pocket book like a hawk and averse to any risk is probably going to be very hesitant to get into this.