Monday, April 15, 2019

Will we ever be able to fly supersonic again?

From 1976 to 2003, 

If you had the money, you could fly across the Atlantic in less than half the time it takes today. Getting from Paris to New York in less than 3.5 hours requires an airplane that travels at twice the speed of sound.

The Concorde aircraft was noisy and expensive.

It was restricted from flying over land, because the sonic boom could be strong enough to cause broken windows and other property damage. A round-trip ticket cost about $12,500 in 2018 dollars. And the darn thing burned about two tons of fuel to taxi from the gate to the runway.

There are currently companies working to bring back supersonic flight.

 One of these companies, Boom, claims to be on track to start carrying passengers in the mid 2020's. They are also aiming to keep the ticket prices similar to a business class seat on a regular airliner. While these do seem like lofty goals, They have made significant progress in the right direction, and companies like Japan Airlines and Virgin have placed preliminary orders for the aircraft.

I myself am looking forward to the re-introduction of supersonic flight, and if it proves to be a safe alternative, I'd definitely be willing to scrape the funds together to give it a try.

How about you? Would you take a ride on a new, supersonic airplane?

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