spike supersonic travel

Simple Flying

La to tokyo in 5 hours: inside the spike s-512 supersonic jet.

There’s a new entrant appearing in the resurgence of supersonic travel , and its name is Spike. The Spike S-512 is set to be a supersonic business jet, capable of reducing flight times dramatically.

What is the Spike S-512?

The Spike S-512 is under development by Spike Aerospace, based in Boston. Capable of traveling at speeds of up to Mach 1.6, or 1,100 miles per hour, it promises to convey between 12 and 18 passengers around the world with flight times of 50% less than on other airlines. The company also shares that the plane would have a max range of 6,200 NM (11,482 km).

The route map for the Spike S-512 is a tantalizing prospect. The airline suggests a trip from New York JFK could arrive in Dubai in just 6.5 hours, a huge saving over the current 12.2 hours it takes. From LA, Tokyo could be within five hours reach, while London to New York could be cut to just over three hours in the sky.

The aircraft has been under study since 2013, and while the first prototypes are still a way off, the company is hopeful of success. Notably, the Spike S-512 promises to deliver quiet supersonic flight, with a perceived loudness level of just 75 dB, something the developers described as ‘sounding like a soft clap’.

Spike Aerospace has released some exciting images of what the interior of this supersonic jet could look like. Let’s take a tour.

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A multiplex digital cabin

Aircraft windows have long presented a challenge for planemakers. While they are necessary to prevent claustrophobia and to make passengers happy, they weaken the structure and add weight to the design. As such, they are necessarily small and often inconvenient.

Spike has come up with a novel solution to this age-old problem. Onboard the S-512, passengers will be treated to a full cabin length high definition screen. These can display the real-time aircraft surroundings, fed from the 360 degree external HD cameras, or can be used to display a movie or work presentation.

Removing the windows not only allows for this next-level IFE experience. It also significantly reduces the noise infiltration, which Spike says will reduce cabin noise by 20dB. Speaking to the Telegraph , Spike Aerospace founder and CEO Vik Kachoria said,

“The Concorde was ridiculously noisy. Most conversations between two people are between 65 and 75 decibels and the noise level found within most plane cabins is around 85 decibels. Not quite a vacuum cleaner but not far off. Our windowless aircraft will be about 60 decibels, so lower than the sound of a conversation. No noise-cancelling headphones required.”

In terms of comfort, the aircraft is proposed to feature luxurious leather seating with a range of layouts to suit the needs of the buyer. A more commercial operation might choose a 1-1 layout with 12 or more seats, whereas a VIP or private customer could really make the most of the space.

As expected, the jet will feature high-speed WiFi and an inflight telephone system to keep its business customers connected.

What do you make of the Spike supersonic jet concept? Let us know in the comments.

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Matt Burgess

A new era of supersonic flight is almost here. But nobody can agree on the right speed

On January 15 a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flying from New York's JFK airport to London Gatwick set a new journey speed record. The aircraft, owned by budget airline Norwegian, completed its 3,470 mile journey in five hours and 13 minutes. In doing so, it became the fastest subsonic plane to travel across the Atlantic.

The Dreamliner beat the previous record, held by a British Airways plane, by three minutes. But the speed boost wasn't down to technological or engineering advancements – it was down to tailwinds. So strong was the speed boost that the Norwegian flight hit a top ground speed of 779mph. But while that's faster than the speed of sound, the flight didn't break the sound barrier as its speed through the air was ever so slightly slower.

"Most aircraft we have today are in fact slightly slower than they were in the 1960s," says Phil Atcliffe, a senior lecturer in aerodynamics and aircraft performance at the University of Salford. Performance has largely stagnated, he says. "They're more efficient, they don't burn as much fuel, they carry more people, they even fly longer distances but in performance terms they're pretty much the same speed."

Norwegian Air's close call with supersonic flight was a reminder of how much air travel has slowed down in recent years. At present the sound barrier (Mach 1, 767mph) is reserved for military aircraft. Concorde was retired from flight in 2003 – three years after the crash of Air France Flight 4590, which killed 113 people – and supersonic flight hasn't returned to the masses since. But a glut of companies are working on bringing back supersonic travel and they're getting closer to making it a reality.

There are two approaches to developing the next generation of supersonic planes: creating private supersonic jets and trying to make supersonic planes for larger groups. Aerion Supersonic and Spike Aerospace are developing private jets for the wealthy and Boom Supersonic is creating plane for less well-monied flyers. The goal? To reduce the time spent on long haul flights and make them commercially successful.

All the next generation supersonic planes being developed use slightly different technologies, vary in size and are aimed at different markets. And to add to the confusion none of the companies involved can agree on what speeds they should be travelling at.

Brian Barrett

Brendan I. Koerner

Steven Levy

Scott Gilbertson

Spike's S-512 plane, a windowless business jet, is planned to reach speeds of Mach 1.6 (1,227mph). Aerion's AS2 business jet will have a top cruise speed of Mach 1.4 (1,074mph). And Boom has set its sights on even faster travel: Mach 2.2 (1,687mph). Boom's offering is the only one in the same league as Concorde, which had a maximum speed of Mach 2.04 (1,565mph).

These speed differences make a big difference when applied to real-world flights. Boom says New York to London will be possible in 3 hours 15 minutes, with Aerion's plane it will take 4.5 hours and Spike claims potential flight times of 3.3 hours for the same journey.

"Everyone else is thinking slower," Scholl says. "If you go faster – and I think you need to go at least Mach 2.0 for this to work – you're not just saving a couple of hours with the way the flights are scheduled, you're going to save people whole days."

But there's also another hurdle – it's one that may derail supersonic planes all together. Red tape. The sonic boom from airplanes hasn't been completely eradicated and it's illegal to fly at supersonic speeds above US soil. Concorde's popularity – and what routes it was able to fly – wasn't helped by its supersonic boom. So the latest iterations of supersonic technology are aiming to get around this.

"The AS2 has the ability to fly up to Mach 1.2 without a boom reaching the ground," Barents says. "We term this Boomless Cruise, known technically as Mach cut-off speed. That is about 50 per cent faster than today’s airliners." Boom says it expects its supersonic boom will be "at least 30 times quieter than Concorde's". Spike says it has patent-pending "Quiet Supersonic Flight Technology" that will top a sonic boom reaching the ground.

But these are yet to be fully proven in real-world testing. There may be some respite though as US air traffic officials are looking at rewriting supersonic flight rules . In the future, supersonic planes may need to have their noise certified before they can fly.

There's one thing the supersonic firms can all agree on: the demand exists. "People are looking for a market," Atcliffe says. "They know that travelling in Concorde was popular so they're looking for a way that is close to it, a way to get something better than the standard subsonic airline travel we have today." But this isn't just about dreaming up a revamped Concorde – it's rethinking supersonic passenger flight (and its business model) from the ground up.

"Airlines are flying basically the same jets between the same airports with more or less the same cabin experience," says Blake Scholl, the founder and CEO of supersonic plane company Boom Supersonic . "It's why they all have these frequent flyer programmes to try and lock us in – without those there's no reason to not switch airlines all the time."

At present, all three are working on prototypes. Spike Aerospace says it tested an unmanned, subscale version of its S-512 plane (dubbed the SX-1.2) on seven short test flights in October 2017; Boom will fly a one-third scale plane in 2019 and Aerion Supersonic also wants to test next year. If all goes well, and that's a big if, passenger flights could take place towards the mid-2020s.

That might sound a long way off, but the race to go supersonic again finally has some momentum behind it. "There are really three big areas that have changed since Concorde was designed: aerodynamics, materials and engines," explains Scholl. Wind tunnels can now be replaced by computer simulations, carbon fibre composites are lighter than the materials Concorde was made of and engines no longer require afterburners, he says.

"They add up to enough of an efficiency gain where you can today build a supersonic aircraft that is 75 per cent more efficient to operate than Concorde," Scholl explains. "That means it can be a lot more affordable to passengers". Scholl says Boom started with the economics of flight and then worked back towards and aircraft.

Boom's approach to supersonic travel is to create a 55-seater commercial airliner, which will fly at Mach 2.2 and have seats priced around $5,000 for transatlantic flights (in 1981, a round-trip ticket to London or Paris from New York, about a three-and-a-half hour flight at 1,350 miles an hour, cost about $3,000). Scholl's gamble is simple: he believes Boom can always fill a 55-seater plane, as opposed to Concorde, which had to fill more than 100 seats per flight.

Scholl says Boom's XB-1 demonstrator plane, which will fly next year, is currently being manufactured. The engines have arrived in Boom's hangars and the company is in the process of building the tail and wings. Currently, Boom has 76 orders from five airlines – including Richard Branson's Virgin Group – and despite being smaller the plane looks similar to Concorde. "It's an evolutionary design, rather than a revolutionary design as we already had the revolutionary design in Concorde," Atcliffe says of Boom's aircraft.

As far back as 2015, Aerion agreed a deal to sell 20 of its jets to airline charter service Flexjet . The AS2 plane will be able to carry eight to 12 passengers and is firmly focussed on business uses. "We project a market for 300 AS2s over the first 10 years of production," Brian Barents, the CEO of Aerion says. "We think a business jet is the right place to relaunch supersonic flight, and expect that airline aircraft will follow as we prove the market for efficient supersonic travel."

Aerion has been developing its supersonic technology since 2003, when Concorde stopped its service. In December 2017, Aerion started working with Lockheed Martin, the developer of supersonic fighter planes, on its AS2 plane. "The Aerion AS2 concept warrants the further investment of our time and resources," Orlando Carvalho, an executive vice president, at Lockheed said in a statement at the time.

Nasa has also been working on supersonic flight with its X-planes and Virgin Galactic's long-running attempts to create commercial space travel has seen its VSS Unity pass supersonic speed.

But, despite all the hype supersonic flights are still some years away from reality. And that's if everything goes smoothly. "People have always been interested in supersonic travel," Atcliffe says. There was excitement around travelling at the speed of sound before Concorde was developed, during its operation and long since it went out of service. Much of this has led to no real developments.

This time around though, things may be different. "It's actually beginning to look like it might be converted into hardware," Atcliffe says. "There are lots of indications that it should start happening very soon."

This article is part of our WIRED on Transport series where we explore the challenges and solutions in transport, such as the future of borders after Brexit, the new race to make supersonic travel work and the hover train that never was.

Follow the hashtag #WIREDonTransport on Twitter for all our coverage and click the links below for more stories in the series.

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This article was originally published by WIRED UK

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Spike Takes A Different Path To Supersonic Renaissance

It is easy to forget, but since 2013 a third horse has been in the race to revive supersonic air travel. In that time, Spike has announced none of the progress or types of investment and partnership that have boosted Aerion and Boom Supersonic.

That may be changing. The Boston-based startup has formed a heavy-hitting advisory board and signed an industry partnership with Tech Mahindra, and it plans a Series A funding round to pay for a demonstrator. A huge effort lies ahead if it is to catch up with Aerion and Boom. But as Spike does begin to talk, a different approach to bringing back supersonic travel is emerging.

Aerion is developing the AS2, a Mach 1.4, 8-10-passenger supersonic business jet aimed at service entry in 2026. Boom’s Overture is a Mach 2.2, 65-88-seat supersonic airliner that could begin carrying passengers in 2029. Both must slow down to avoid sonic booms when flying over land.

Spike’s S-512 differs in two ways it considers critical to market success: 18-passenger seats and low sonic boom. The company is aiming for a boom strength at the aircraft’s Mach 1.6 cruise speed of less than 75 PLdB—NASA’s target for public acceptance of supersonic flights over land.

To John Thomas, seasoned airline executive and new member of Spike’s executive team, size and boom set the supersonic startup apart. Formerly CEO of Virgin Australia Airlines and now running a corporate charter operation, Thomas has doubts about the market rationale for Aerion and Boom.

The AS2 competes in a market in which customers value privacy but not necessarily speed since they set their own agendas. They may not see the need to pay more to go faster, he says. And Boom, Thomas argues, is offering too much capacity for the market.

“Concorde told us there is a market that is prepared to pay a premium,” Thomas says. “But it failed because, even on the most lucrative route in the world, they struggled to fill 100 seats. There is a market there, but what is its size?” he asks.

“Airlines are getting rid of first class. The reason is because, given the quality of business class now, you can’t differentiate first class. So how do you differentiate first class? You differentiate by speed,” Thomas says.

“Your classic first-class cabin on a 747-400 is 16 seats, 16-18 seats on an A380. Spike is effectively taking the first-class cabin out of a subsonic aircraft and finally doing some form of differentiation,” he says.

“Airlines have always struggled to fill their first-class cabins because of the value proposition,” Thomas says. “People aren’t prepared to pay for bells and whistles. If you add the speed component, that is a game changer. It’s about matching the right gauge to the market segment. If you’re trying to fill only 18 seats, that opens up all market opportunities.”

After size and speed, a third critical factor is sonic boom. “Low boom that allows you to do supersonic over land massively increases the number of routes you can fly,” Thomas says.

Boom is focused on oceanic routes where the Overture can cruise at Mach 2.2 over water. Aiming for service entry in 2028, Spike is looking at lucrative transcontinental business routes, especially in Asia, where supersonic overland flight is essential. “Now you can do Singapore-Tokyo, Singapore-Sydney as a day business trip,” he says.

“Dubai is a nonstarter for high-boom aircraft,” Thomas says. “If you have low boom, Dubai-London is a day trip. To me, that’s a game changer. Because if you can do that—and not at a first-class fare but a premium-to-business class—the number of people who are going to do that becomes a really interesting opportunity.”

Spike is looking at serving point-to-point routes rather than hubs. “If I’m an airline looking for scale, I’m not going to get it by putting 50-60 people on an aircraft,” Thomas says. “I’d rather have 16-18 people on an aircraft that I’m sending on different routes. If I’m Singapore Airlines, I’m doing Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, Mumbai, and all of a sudden, I can justify 10 of these aircraft.”

Spike has much still to prove, including the ability to raise funding. President and CEO Vik Kachoria says it is “90% confident” of achieving the low-boom goal after six conceptual design iterations. Wind-tunnel testing of the 4,800-nm-range trijet, planned for the third quarter, “will get us to 95%,” he says. Reaching 100% will have to wait until Spike can fly its manned proof-of-concept aircraft, scheduled for 2022. Entry into service is planned for 2028, which is “optimistic,” Kachoria acknowledges.

Graham leads Aviation Week's coverage of technology, focusing on engineering and technology across the aerospace industry, with a special focus on identifying technologies of strategic importance to aviation, aerospace and defense.

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Meet the new Concorde: The supersonic jet that could fly London to New York in under two hours

By Annabelle Spranklen

Transatlantic flights have never been the same since Concorde flights came to a halt in 2003. The British-French turbojet, which still holds the record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by a commercial aircraft after cruising at more than twice the speed of sound, made its final flight in June 2003, the last time travellers could fly to the US in under three hours.

While its retirement may have marked the first time in aviation history that we took a step backwards, there is some good news from a new supersonic jet hoping to herald a new era of travelling. As reported by The Telegraph , Spike Aerospace’s Spike S-512 Supersonic Jet might just be our next greatest opportunity to travel from London to the US in record time.

The Telegraph reveals that the new jet offers 'both low sonic boom (the explosive noise caused by the shock wave from an aircraft when they break the sound barrier) and a commitment to offering a "Zero Carbon" flight by 2040.'

The Spike S-512 has been designed to transport up to 18 passengers and travel at a speed of Mach 1.6, with the ability to do 3,000-mile trips including the likes of typically long-haul journeys such as London to New York or Dubai to Hong Kong in around three and a half hours, all 'while maintaining low sonic boom.'

The developers are said to be working on increasing the speed of the jet to Mach 3.3 meaning travellers could fly from London to New York in an hour and half.

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By Harriet Johnston

Spike Aerospace are hoping to begin sending humans in the aircraft for trials next year in the hope that it might be ready for commercial flights by 2028.

Spike Aerospace founder and CEO Vik Kachoria told the newspaper the jet is focused towards business travel. 'Zoom works great but if you’re doing a billion dollar deal, you really want to be there on the ground, to touch and feel and see it.'

Inside the aircraft, windows have been removed to keep noise to a minimum and instead replaced with screens which can give a panoramic view of the outside of the aircraft.

Kachoria said, 'The Concorde was ridiculously noisy. Most conversations between two people are between 65 and 75 decibels and the noise level found within most plane cabins is around 85 decibels. Not quite a vacuum cleaner but not far off. Our windowless aircraft will be about 60 decibels, so lower than the sound of a conversation. No noise-cancelling headphones required.'

According to Kachoria, the price tag on flying on the Spike S-512 is likely up be around the same price as a business class seat on a mainstream aircraft, 'Remember, almost every technological innovation we’ve had has started out for the uber-rich: cars, telephones, computers, flat screen TVs – the first ones cost $25,000 in the 90s and now they’re $200.'

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Will Supersonic Flying Actually Take Off? These Companies Think So.

From boom supersonic to spike aerospace, a handful of disruptors are trying to resuscitate the genre..

Basem Wasef

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Other ventures attempting to resuscitate the genre include Spike Aerospace , which is developing a supersonic corporate jet, and Lockheed Martin , which is contracted to build NASA’s X-59 for possible civilian use. Upping the ante are outfits such as Destinus and Hermeus, which aim to leave the competition behind with hypersonic velocities that quintuple the speed of sound. Yet numerous efforts have fallen back to earth, among them Aerion , once considered the supersonic industry leader, which abruptly closed its doors in 2021 after nearly 20 years of revving everyone’s hopes. 

“Now they’ve announced this unbelievable pairing of companies to develop an engine,” says aviation- industry analyst Brian Foley, about the trio of Florida Turbine Technologies, GE Additive and StandardAero that Boom says will provide its propulsion solution. “That seems like a deliberate—and desperate—move to have an answer,” he adds. “Designing an engine is no easy task, especially from scratch, and it’s potentially a multibillion-dollar exercise beyond designing the plane.” 

The engineering challenges of meeting 21st-century regulations for such aircraft are formidable. One industry expert, who asked to remain anonymous, described it as being “like a Rubik’s Cube—you get the yellow side, but then the blue and green go to shit.” Then there’s the most important issue: funding. Boom says it has raised only $600 million so far. “Much of the public, and even some in our industry, don’t appreciate the substantial dollars that will be required to get this thing over the top,” Foley says. 

Some are quite outspoken about the chasm between the current reality and a finished aircraft. “This is nothing but a set of interesting concept drawings,” says Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory , of Boom. “I just don’t see anything there, except an effort to attract money. They’ve gotten some, but by aerospace standards it’s an amusingly small amount.” 

Scholl acknowledges that fundraising efforts are nowhere near his estimated need of $6 billion to $8 billion to bring Overture to market but pushes back against the naysayers: “We’ve already done things that the experts said we couldn’t do. The technology and supply chain exist. There’s no fundamental new science—every key technology in this airplane has already flown before.” 

Basem Wasef is an automotive and motorcycle journalist and photographer with two coffee-table books to his credit: Legendary Race Cars and Legendary Motorcycles. A contributor to publications…

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See what’s fueling the return of supersonic passenger flights

More than two decades after the Concorde’s last flight, several private companies are competing to bring supersonic travel to the masses

In January, more than 100 people gathered at an airplane hangar in California to watch NASA unveil its X-59 demonstrator jet — a futuristic aircraft designed to travel faster than the speed of sound that has helped revive excitement for supersonic travel.

There hasn’t been a commercial supersonic passenger jet since the Concorde stopped flying in 2003. Since then, supersonic jets — which travel faster than the speed of sound — have been used primarily by the military. But the space agency’s unveiling of the X-59, designed and built in partnership with Lockheed Martin, comes as a growing number of private companies are vying to bring back supersonic travel for the commercial market.

Boom, Exosonic and Spike are among the companies promising modern supersonic travel that will be quieter, greener and more affordable than in the past. And at least one company — Hermeus — is exploring hypersonic flights, which would whisk passengers from New York to London in 90 minutes. But there are questions about whether these companies can make good on their claims given the economics of air travel and growing concerns about the impact of commercial aviation on the environment.

Here are five things to know about the effort to revive supersonic travel.

1. The sonic ‘boom’ could become a ‘soft thump’

NASA’s goal in developing the X-59 is to reduce the sonic boom — the thunder clap that resonates far and wide when an aircraft crosses the sound barrier. NASA scientists hope the demonstrator jet can prove that travel at supersonic speeds is possible without such earsplitting noise.

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One key to quieting the boom comes from the plane’s design. The engine is mounted on top. The plane has a long, narrow nose and sculpted wing to help ensure the shock waves it creates as it speeds through the air are similar in strength and evenly spaced along the aircraft to create a gradual increase in pressure instead of the rapid jump that creates the loud bang, said Peter Coen, mission integration manager for the Quesst mission.

The sonic boom is around 105 PLdB, or perceived level of decibels, similar to that of the sound of a balloon popping next to you. In comparison, NASA says the X-59’s will sound closer to a car door slamming 20 feet away.

Turning the boom into a “soft thump,” as NASA hopes, could also improve the economics for commercial supersonic flights. It could mean an end to the U.S. ban on supersonic travel over land, which was enacted over noise concerns. That in turn could make commercial supersonic travel financially viable because airlines would be able to fly supersonic planes to more destinations.

Designing and building the X-59 took roughly five years. Testing is underway, and other phases of the project are expected to take another four. The total projected cost is $839 million, according to NASA.

2. There’s a flurry of interest from private companies

Nearly a half a dozen companies are competing to be the first to offer supersonic travel to the public — a curious interest at a time when much investment and innovation in transportation is focused on developing cleaner, more climate-friendly options that consume less fuel or alternative propulsion technologies such as batteries or hydrogen.

Denver-based Boom Supersonic is eyeing 2029 for the debut of its supersonic passenger jet, called Overture. The aircraft is expected to seat 64 to 80 passengers, according to Blake Scholl, the company’s chief executive. It will travel at Mach 1.7, or 1.7 times the speed of sound — more than twice as fast as a regular passenger airplane .

One company, Aerion — which had backing from major players in the industry including Boeing and Lockheed Martin to build a supersonic business jet — has already bowed out of the race. It shut down in 2021, unable to secure the funding to continue it work.

Industry analysts say venture capital and the mind-set that commercial supersonic sounds like a good idea has largely fueled the revival.

“It’s that Silicon Valley mentality that you put money down on 20 things for one that does well,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory. “Again, it sounds like a good idea. There’s a good market for air transport and people want to fly fast. We had Concorde in the past so it sounds right — so let’s put some money there.”

Bruce McClelland, a senior contributing analyst at aerospace and defense industry analysis firm the Teal Group, added, “A lot of projects attract money whether they’re completely viable or not.”

3. It promises sustainability

Companies say their new generation of supersonic jets will have a smaller carbon footprint, mostly because they will be fueled by sustainable aviation fuel. This is fuel is made from agricultural products including soybeans and animal fat.

But critics say that pledge ignores some significant realities. For instance, there isn’t enough sustainable aviation fuel for planes that exist today. The sustainable aviation fuel that does exist is more expensive — by some estimates two to four times the cost of fossil fuel.

And no matter the fuel, the reality is supersonic jets will always use more of it. According to a 2022 study by International Council on Clean Transportation, supersonic jets could use seven to nine times as much fuel as regular commercial aircraft while carrying fewer passengers. But NASA’s Coen contends that supersonic travel at least initially will be a very small part of overall CO2 emissions and a very small part of commercial aviation.

Even so, with airlines pledging to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, some say it’s hard to understand how supersonic jets fit into that framework.

4. It could be affordable for more people

The Concorde ended service because only a small slice of the flying public could ever afford a ticket, among other reasons, including a 2000 crash that killed 113 people and grounded Concorde’s supersonic planes for a year. But today’s entrepreneurs say supersonic travel can be affordable — though maybe not at first.

They point to Tesla and the burgeoning space tourism sector as an example of new modes of transportation that have and could eventually become accessible to a growing segment of the population.

Analysts have their doubts, though, given how difficult it is for commercial airlines to stay afloat. Supersonic jets will carry fewer passengers and consume greater quantities of fuel. If that fuel is sustainable aviation fuel, those costs increase even more.

“Essentially, the faster you fly, the more fuel you are burning per mile,” said Iain Boyd, director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “Supersonic is always going to be more expensive.”

5. It could get even faster

Hermeus, based in Atlanta is just one of the companies exploring the possibility of an even faster, hypersonic commercial passenger jet. While supersonic aircraft travel faster than the speed of sound, hypersonic aircraft travel at speeds five times faster or more.

Translated: that would make a flight between New York and London — a 90-minute trip — about the same as flying from New York to D.C. on today’s commercial aircraft.

The company’s Halcyon jet would travel at Mach 5 — or five times the speed of sound. A.J. Piplica, the company’s chief executive, said the company is laying the groundwork for Halcyon by building hypersonic drones that could be used for defense and national security purposes.

But the company is open about the technological challenges it faces developing such a fast aircraft. Today, there’s a less than 50 percent chance of getting Halcyon in the air, Piplica says — but he expects the odds to improve over time.

Even then, Hermeus — and all the start-ups — will have to convince the public to buy in and will have to grapple with growing concern about the impact of air travel on the environment. It could be a tall order.

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Spike aerospace is reviving the dream of supersonic travel.

September 3, 2015 | Reece Alvarez

The recently updated design for the Spike S-512, a conceptual supersonic jet said to be capable of cruising speeds of Mach 1.6 and able to jet passengers to international destinations in roughly half the time it currently takes.

An American company is promising to fly luxury passengers from London to New York in a little more than three hours with their recently updated supersonic jet — the Spike S-512.

“Flying supersonic is clearly the future of aviation,” said Spike CEO & President Vik Kachoria. “It makes the world smaller and more accessible.”

Flying 450 mph faster than any other civilian jet, the company says the  the  Spike S-512 will reach international destinations in half the time by cruising at a smooth supersonic Mach 1.6 (1100 mph/1770 km) — breaking the sound barrier and cutting an average flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo to six hours instead of eleven.

Design upgrades

The original design concept for the Spike S-512 was announced in 2013 with the expectation that the  first prototype  would be released in five to seven years and possibly as soon as December 2018.

According to Spike, the most noticeable change to the aircraft design over the last 18 months is that the wings are now a modified delta wing, meaning the triangular, swept-back shape of the jet’s wings.

According to Senior Engineer Dr. Anutosh Moitra, “The new delta wing of the S-512 delivers high aerodynamic efficiency and improved flight performance in both low-speed flight and supersonic cruise. The highly swept leading-edge reduces wave drag and consequently reduces fuel burn and increases range.”

The tail was also modified to reduce drag and improve aircraft control in supersonic conditions — giving the jet its hyper streamlined look.

“Improved stability characteristics of the new S-512 design allowed us to eliminate the horizontal tail resulting in further reduction of drag and weight,” Dr. Moitra said.

This sketch provided by Spike Aerospace shows the evolution of the design of the Spike S-512’s tail. (Credit: Spike Aerospace)

Not the first

Spike is not the only company to dream of bringing back  supersonic commercial flight  since the abandonment of the Concorde jets in 2003.

From 1976 to 2003 Concordes flew international commercial flights of up to 128 passengers at a cruising speed of Mach 2.04 (~1,354 mph or 2,179 km/h) until 2003, when a host of issues from economic feasibility to environmental and public safety concerns grounded the industry.

The downfall of the concorde is partially attributed to the loss in public confidence following the crash of Air France Flight 4590 in 2000. The crash in France killed 113 people including the flight’s passengers, crew and four people on the ground. This was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history and was attributed to external causes. (Credit: Pixabay)

Whether supersonic flights will return on a large commercial scale will remain to be seen as the vision for many of these future jets relies on low passenger counts and sky high prices.

Flying in style

The price tag on the  Spike S-512  is estimated at $60 to $80 million while a  competing design  from Aerion Corporation is predicted to be in the range of $120 million.

Both jets carry only a few people; the Spike S-512 is currently designed to carry up to 18 passengers while Aerion’s is designed for up to 12 passengers.

Just one look at the  interior of the Spike S-512  and it’s easy to see the type of client the jet is intended for.

Spike claims its jet will have the first windowless interior cabin lined with a thin display screen embedded into the wall. According to the company, cameras surrounding the entire aircraft will construct panoramic views displayed on the cabin screens. Passengers will be able to dim the screens to catch some sleep or change it to one of the many scenic images stored in the system.

To meet the needs of business clients the full-length interior display can also be used for presentations in addition to the jaw-dropping scenic views. (Credit: Spike Aerospace)

“Fuselage walls are complex structures made even more complicated by the additional structures needed to support cabin windows. Eliminating the windows allow us to simplify the fuselage design, reduce the parts count and lower manufacturing costs. But, it also results in a smoother exterior skin which reduces the aircraft's drag resulting in increased fuel efficiency,” Kachoria said.

Wall-length scenic displays are not the only amenity the jet will offer. The company says jet-setters will fly in comfort and style with soft leather seating, reduced cabin noise, higher oxygen levels and high-speed wireless Internet access.

Evolution of air transport

“For any competitive global business, cutting flight times in half will have significant value. But for people who have busy global lives and want to spend time with the people they love, the Spike S-512 Supersonic Jet will be a necessity.” Kachoria said.

According to Spike’s website, the company sees the revived dream of supersonic flight not only as the next step for the business class but, in time, a benefit to the entire world as well.

“In 20-30 years, supersonic flight will be available on large commercial airlines enabling more people to travel and visit their friends and families around the globe,” according to a statement on the company’s website.

“Pan Am’s first commercial flight across the Atlantic was in 1939. Since then, global face-to-face commerce can be done in a few hours of flight instead of weeks of sailing. In addition to an increase in trade, this has led to an improved standard of living and economic fortunes for the entire world. Similarly, even faster air travel will make even more of the world easier to reach. This, we expect, will result in increased direct foreign investment, some of which will be in key infrastructure projects — resulting in improvements in health, education and welfare.”

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Will We Ever Fly Supersonically Over Land?

By Matthew Hutson

In 1947, Chuck Yeager, the Air Force test pilot, became the first person to break the sound barrier. He did it in a tiny, orange-colored plane called the Bell X-1—essentially, a cockpit and two wings connected to a rocket engine. Like all supersonic flyers, Yeager trailed a sonic boom behind him. The principle behind the boom is simple: sound travels through the air in the form of compression waves, so called because they occur as air gets denser and sparser; as a plane flies, the waves expand in all directions at the speed of sound. But when the plane itself exceeds that speed—at around seven hundred and seventy miles per hour at sea level, or around six hundred and sixty at cruising altitude—it catches up to the waves expanding in front of it. They begin to build up, and this single, merged wave reaches the ground all at once, creating a boom. A zone of low pressure follows—the trough of the wave—and then normal air pressure returns, creating its own sound. (Often, sonic booms go boom-boom.) It’s no coincidence that sonic booms sound like thunder; thunder is a sonic boom, caused by shock waves expanding around lightning bolts. Bullets travel fast enough to cause sonic booms, as do the tails of whips. Contrary to what you might imagine, a plane causes a sonic boom not just once, when it breaks the sound barrier, but continuously for the entire time that it’s supersonic. The boom sweeps over everything below it—a kind of sonic broom that is about a mile wide for every thousand feet of plane altitude.

Plans for the plane that would become the Concorde—the first commercial “supersonic transport,” or S.S.T.—began in the nineteen-fifties. NASA began working on supersonic transport upon its founding, in 1958, eventually settling on a design by Boeing. But these initiatives started before sonic booms were fully understood. In a technical summary written in 1960, NASA scientists warned that “shock-wave noise pressures” might be “of sufficient intensity to damage parts of ground building structures such as windows, in addition to causing annoyance.” The full extent of that annoyance, however, would take a while to gauge. Over ten months in 1961 and 1962, the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) ran Operation Bongo, flying B-58 bombers over St. Louis and asking citizens about the hundred and fifty or so booms the planes created; the authors concluded only that, after repeated booms, “some reaction may be expected.” (“Sonic boom’s a top-priority public-relations problem,” an Air Force major told The New Yorker , in 1962.) A clearer picture emerged in 1964, when Operation Bongo II created more than a thousand sonic booms over Oklahoma City. People complained of interruptions to their sleep, conversations, and peace of mind, and about the occasional crack in plaster or glass. By the end, about one in four said that they could not learn to live with the noise. These studies, along with tens of thousands of claims against the Air Force for property damage—horses and turkeys had supposedly died or gone insane—led the F.A.A. to ban civil overland supersonic flight, in 1973.

There are many reasons why the Concorde, which flew for the first time in 1969, stopped flying in 2003. Among them is the fact that the service was allowed to reach supersonic speeds only over the ocean. This month, United Airlines announced plans to purchase planes from Boom Supersonic, a Denver startup that aims to produce a new generation of supersonic passenger planes. But Boom’s plane, the Overture, will still boom, and so remain an overseas beast, at least at full throttle. Overland supersonic travel—J.F.K. to S.F.O. in three hours, more or less—depends upon the invention of a quieter boom.

Only in the past twenty years, with enhanced computer models of aerodynamics, has a kind of sonic thump become possible. “The basic theory for sonic-boom shaping actually existed during Concorde’s development, back in the nineteen-sixties,” Michael Buonanno, an air-vehicle lead at Lockheed Martin, told me. Unfortunately, he went on, “computers weren’t powerful enough at the time to run the advanced simulations necessary to really dial in” the ideal shape. In 2003 and 2004, using better simulations, NASA flew the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator, a Northrop Grumman F-5 with a nose job; researchers saved money by grafting a removable portion onto the underside of a preëxisting jet, calling the resulting aircraft the Pelican, because of its bulbous profile. In 2006 and 2007, NASA pursued a similar idea in partnership with Gulfstream, fitting a McDonnell Douglas F-15 with a “Quiet Spike,” which protruded some twenty-four feet from its nose.

In both cases, the idea was to round off the peak of the leading compression wave, turning a sharp-edged tsunami into a more gradual swell. Planes, with their distinctive shapes, actually cause many distinct wavelets; as the wavelets approach the ground, they coalesce into the bow and tail waves that cause the booms. If you can modify the plane’s shape so that the waves don’t combine—by spreading them out, say, by means of an extra-long nose—then the sonic booms will be of a lower intensity. In this regard, the Pelican and the Quiet Spike were modest successes; their booms weren’t quite so thunderous. In 2015, JAXA , the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, confirmed the basic finding with a smaller-scale project, called D-SEND . The agency dropped a sleek, twenty-six-foot unpowered glider from a balloon nineteen miles above Sweden. It reached Mach 1.39—that is, 1.39 times the speed of sound—and produced a relatively flattened wave.

NASA ’s current project, the X-59 QueSST (for Quiet SuperSonic Technology), aims both to explore low-boom tech and to study community response to muffled booms. “The airplane is essentially just a boom, or, in this case, a thump generator,” David Richwine, NASA ’s deputy project manager for technology on QueSST, said. Acousticians have many measures of loudness; NASA is using perceived decibel level, or PLdB. The Concorde’s boom was around a hundred and three PLdBs, roughly the loudness of nearby thunder, or a car door slamming while you’re inside the car; seventy-five PLdBs, NASA ’s goal for QueSST, is about an eighth as loud—the equivalent of distant thunder, or a car door slamming twenty feet away. (Like decibels or earthquakes, PLdBs are measured on a logarithmic scale.) Lockheed Martin is currently constructing the plane, which will fly over American cities in 2024. (Buonanno is the company’s chief engineer on the project.)

With its pointy nose and delta wings, the one-seat X-59 resembles a mini-Concorde in some ways and differs in others. It will be a hundred feet long, with a wingspan of thirty feet, an engine centered on the tail, and more surfaces than appear necessary: horizontal stabilizers at both the bottom and top of the tail, and also on the nose. “All those are used to tune those shocks,” David Richardson, the X-59’s program director at Lockheed Martin, said. The team hopes to stretch the front of the boom wave from a single millisecond out to twenty or thirty. (“I’ve been at the Skunk Works for about thirty years, doing a lot of different programs,” Richardson added. “This is my first unclassified program—so it’s really good to be able to talk about it not only to the world but to my family.”)

Ultimately, by running a sort of Operation Bongo III, the X-59 team hopes to persuade the F.A.A. to revisit its 1973 ban on supersonic transport; the agency might agree, instead, to issue certification standards for commercial S.S.T. The plane contains other technology that might translate to a commercial design. One promising feature is the eXternal Vision System, or X.V.S. The X-59 is too pointy for a cockpit canopy, so the team has equipped it with high-definition cameras and monitors; pilots will stare at screens allowing them to look “through” the plane, in a kind of augmented reality. The designers of the Concorde, which was similarly pointy, allowed its pilots to see the runway by means of an elaborate mechanism that physically bent the plane’s nose downward before landing—adding great weight and expense to an already over-budget aircraft. Lockheed Martin likely wouldn’t make a commercial version of the jet, but it could partner with other firms; the company predicts that a passenger version of the X-59 would be two hundred and thirty feet long, about the length of a Boeing 777, and carry around fifty people.

A few companies are already pursuing low-boom supersonic passenger planes. Gulfstream has obtained patents in the area, and a company called Spike Aerospace says that it’s using “Quiet Supersonic Flight Technology” to develop an eighteen-passenger business jet with a sonic boom of seventy-five PLdBs. (Neither company replied to inquiries.)

Exosonic, a California startup, is conducting scale-model wind-tunnel tests of what would be a seventy-seat supersonic plane. Its approach is similar to NASA ’s: “What we do is we change the shape of the sonic-boom wave form to something that is far less audible,” John Morgenstern, the head of aerodynamics and boom at Exosonic, told me. (One of Morgenstern’s colleagues has described Exosonic’s goal as a sonic “puff.”) Last September, the company received a million-dollar military contract to explore the possibility of using the plane as an Air Force One. Morgenstern joined Exosonic in April, after working at Lockheed Martin as a designer on the X-59; in his new role, he has different variables to balance. The plane must be more than just a thump generator—its design must optimize boom intensity, passenger safety, engine noise at takeoff and landing, and fuel efficiency. (The International Council on Clean Transportation has estimated that supersonic planes will burn three to nine times as much fuel per passenger as regular ones—a good reason, as Bill McKibben wrote , earlier this month, for trying Zoom, not Boom.) Exosonic’s plane will fly at Mach 1.8, which is an ideal speed for S.S.T.s: slower planes reduce flight times insufficiently, whereas faster ones require noisier engines. I asked Morgenstern if it was risky to invest in a commercial low-boom plane while overland supersonic flight was still banned. “I would say it’s less risky than going out there with a plane that doesn’t have that technology,” he said. He sketched a scenario in which regulations change around 2028 and Exosonic begins test flights four or five years later.

In 2016, the Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank at George Mason University, published “ Make America Boom Again ,” a white paper arguing that, given new technology, we should bring back supersonic transport. The paper’s authors, Eli Dourado and Samuel Hammond, lamented “the stagnation and regress in supersonic aviation,” which had broken “a trend of rapid progress” in air travel that had begun with the Wright brothers. And yet there are reasons to believe that, even if it were allowed, domestic supersonic flight would have limited commercial appeal. Richwine, of NASA , told me that he thinks S.S.T. could cut some flight times in half. But, he said, supersonic flight wouldn’t proportionately reduce over-all travel time until we fixed our infrastructure: How much better is flying from L.A.X. to J.F.K. in two or three hours if you spend twice that time in airports and traffic?

For most of the years during which the Concorde flew, a traveller could walk into an airport and straight to the gate. In 2013, Doug Robinson, a Utah newspaper columnist, recalled the speed of pre-9/11 airports: “In one of the greatest athletic feats of my life, I once arrived at the curb of the airport three minutes before my plane was scheduled to leave and sprinted up the stairs and down the concourse to the gate, making it just seconds before they closed the door to the plane,” he wrote. Today, with increased security, airlines recommend that passengers arrive two hours early for domestic flights, and three hours early for international flights—about the time that supersonic speeds might save. And so there’s more than one sense in which supersonic flight is a return to the past. With NASA ’s fancy technology, we’ll be back to where we were twenty years ago.

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A 1,100 MPH Plane Is En Route To Connect New York And Europe

The world's first quiet supersonic jet, Spike S-512, may soon take New Yorkers to nearly anywhere in Europe in under four hours.

What if we told you that one day you’ll be able to get from New York to almost anywhere in Europe in around four hours? Sounds pretty incredible, no? Well, Spike Aerospace, an aerospace firm based in Boston, MA and Florida, is currently working on the Spike S-512 Supersonic Business Jet that flies at a speed of Mach 1.6 (500mph faster than other civilian jets).

The Spike S-512 Supersonic Business Jet cuts travel time by more than 50% , featuring a multiplex digital cabin that seats anywhere from 12-18 passengers. Spike Aerospace paints the picture as traveling on a 3-hour flight to London for lunch and a business deal before returning home to your bed in New York for the night.

Talk of supersonic travel’s return has been circulating for some time now, following the Concorde’s final flight in 2003 that went from NYC to London in record time (two hours 52 minutes, and 59 seconds). In most recent news, Boom Supersonic’s ‘Overture’ model is expected to be ready by 2029, traveling at a speed of Mach 1.7 over water (or 1,304mph).

However, “the Spike S-512 is the only supersonic jet in active development that will fly at Mach 1.6 supersonic speeds to any city without the disruptive sonic boom effect that is prohibited globally.” Apparently, “The Concorde produced such a tremendous sonic boom effect that it was restricted to flights over transoceanic routes – primarily NYC to London or Paris.”

Destination & travel times for Spike S-512 Supersonic Business Jet routes include:

• NYC to London: 3 hours
• NYC to LA: 2.23 hours
• NYC to Dubai: 6.5 hours
• NYC to Moscow: 4.5 hours

Spike Aerospace is already taking jet reservations . You can learn more on the Spike Aerospace website here .

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Sceptics voice doubts over new age of supersonic air travel

Years since the demise of concorde it appears that three-and-a-half-hour flights from london to new york could be on the horizon. there are snags, charles bremner reports.

T he four engines screamed and the seat seemed to kick me in the back when the Tupolev Tu-144 hurtled towards take-off on the first passenger flight of Russia’s version of the Concorde. Sitting in that airliner on a grey Moscow morning in November 1977, I felt the future had arrived.

The Soviet Union had been first to fly a supersonic civil transport — four months before Concorde in 1969 — and now the Tupolev was offering cheap, faster-than-sound travel to its masses. But it did not work out like that: a Tupolev crashed within weeks and the “Concordski” was grounded within months.

The Concorde, which opened its passenger service just ahead of the Tupolev, fared better. For 26 years patrons sipped champagne while zooming over the Atlantic at 1,350mph. However, a catastrophic crash in Paris in 2000 sealed its fate and three years later the Anglo-French marvel was gone for good. The first age of civilian supersonic travel was over.

Now a second age is dawning, apparently: Boom Supersonic, a US start-up, this week rang up its 130th order for the 80-seat Overture, a needle-nosed, son-of-Concorde for the green-minded age that is planned to enter service by 2029 and offer affordable three-and-a-half-hour flights from London to New York.

“Supersonic travel will be an important part of our ability to deliver for our customers,” said Derek Kerr, chief financial officer of American Airlines. The world’s second-biggest airline ordered 20 Overtures, with an option for 40 more, after United Airlines booked 50 earlier this year. In comparison, only 14 Concordes ever flew passengers.

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The snags are enormous and sceptics abound: the Overture has not yet been built and it does not have engines, while its “green” fuel, made from organic material, is still scarce and costs five times more than jet kerosene. Is there a market for ultra-fast transport in a world of virtual meetings and onboard wi-fi? How do you justify sonic booms and carbon-spewing engines in an age of flight-shaming?

Boom’s venture is not a one-off. Half a dozen supersonic projects have been under way over the past two decades. Nasa, the US space agency, is well advanced with a 15-year-design to curb the sonic bang that barred Concorde from flying faster than sound over land, helping to kill its commercial prospects.

Working with Nasa, Lockheed Martin has produced a test plane at its desert Skunk Works facility that will turn the bang into a thump no louder than a car door being slammed. The X-59, which Lockheed says will “open up a whole new type of aviation”, is due to make its first flight this year before flying over US cities to test the public reaction. Elsewhere, a start-up called Spike is developing a smaller supersonic business jet and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has plans for its own ultra-fast transport.

The Overture has been under development since 2014 and a scaled-down demonstrator, the XB-1, is due to take off this year. Blake Scholl, Boom’s founder and boss, insists that the technology is within reach to put paying passengers on the Overture by the end of the decade. “The aircraft today are no faster than the ones when my parents were growing up,” he said. “There’s no good reason for that. We can fix it. I want to be anywhere in the world for 100 bucks. That’s not where we start, but it’s the goal.”

Reviving the 1960s pitch for Concorde, Scholl calls the Overture a revolution that will change how the world thinks about distance. “There are tens of millions of passengers every year flying business class on routes where Overture will give a big acceleration and airlines will be able to do it cost effectively.”

Despite noise-reducing technology, the 1,300mph Overture will produce a Concorde-like bang, and so will be limited to oceanic routes. Even so, the company claims it will be able to fly to 600 destinations in half the time, such as Miami to London in under five hours and Los Angeles to Honolulu in three hours, at current business-class prices.

It unveiled its latest version at the Farnborough airshow last month. The plane, which has a contoured fuselage and a gull wing, is built from carbon fibre, like the latest Boeing 787. It now features four wing-mounted engines rather than the three built-in engines of its earlier design. Unlike the Concorde and Tupolev, the Overture’s nose is not lowered in slow flight so pilots can see the runway. They will rely on video.

The company is working with Rolls-Royce on a custom engine that is aimed at powering Overture with no more noise than other modern turbofan jets. It will not use afterburners, the power-boosting blast that produced the racket made by Concorde’s military-derived Rolls-Royce engines on its departures.

Yet, sceptics have yet to be convinced. An analyst with AeroDynamic Advisory, a US company, said that the Overture “is nothing more than a collection of freehand drawings until that engine is produced”.

On the carbon front, Boom denies claims that its planes will emit five to seven times as much per passenger as subsonic jets. It says emissions will be lower and all flights will be “net-zero-carbon” because they will burn sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Produced from carbon-absorbing plants or waste, SAF is supposed to offset the greenhouse gas from jet combustion, but the amount being produced is small and will account for just 2 per cent of airline fuel in 2025.

Big doubts surround Boom’s ability to find the billions of dollars that are needed to develop any new airliner, let alone a revolutionary one. The company has raised some $300 million of the $6 billion to $8 billion that it says it will need to launch the Overture, which has a list price of $200 million. Aircraft launches invariably run far over budget, as do timetables. Some industry experts say it will take up to $15 billion for Overture to fly.

American Airlines pilots took a dim view of the company’s claims this week to be blazing a trail to the future. Their union predicted a future of “supersonic cancellations” and Captain Ed Sicher, its leader, urged the airline to solve present problems. “We urge management to stay focused on the here and now. That’s what our passengers care about,” he said.

So is a second age upon us? Keep the supersonic champagne on ice, at least for a while.

Related articles

The Concorde made its final flight over 20 years ago and supersonic air travel has yet to return. Here's a look back at its incredible history.

• Co-developed by Britain and France, Concorde was the first and only supersonic commercial airliner.
• British Airways operated its final commercial Concorde flight in 2003, ending its 27-year career.
• The supersonic jet remains an icon of modern aviation and a technological marvel.

For a fleeting 30 years during the 20th century, supersonic commercial air travel was a reality. But on October 24, 2003, that era came to an abrupt end.

That day, British Airways operated its last commercial Concorde service from JFK International Airport to London Heathrow. Air France pulled its Concordes from service a few months earlier. Thus, it would be the Concorde's last ever commercial flight in a career that started in January 1976. 

The Anglo-French Concorde was co-developed by BAC, a forerunner of BAE Systems, and Aerospatiale, now a part of Airbus.

The supersonic jet has a storied history.

The Concorde was never the commercial success for which its creators had hoped. Environmental and operational limitations of the Concorde hampered its commercial appeal among airline customers. Only 20 of the planes were ever built, and just 14 of them were production aircraft. The Concorde saw service with only two airlines — Air France and British Airways — on just two routes. 

However, its lack of commercial success doesn't diminish its role as an icon of modern aviation and as a technological marvel, one which plane makers and aerospace startups still talk about replicating.

Over 20 years after its last flight for British Airways, the world is still without a viable form of supersonic passenger service. 

Here's a look back at the awesome history of the Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic airliner. 

This article was originally published by Benjamin Zhang in October 2018. It was updated by David Slotnick in March 2020 and Talia Lakritz in May 2024.

As soon as Chuck Yeager crossed the sound barrier in 1947, commercial aviation companies began planning to take passengers past Mach 1.

"Mach 1" is the speed of sound, or about 670 miles per hour at 30,000 feet, according to the US Air Force .

On November 29, 1962, the governments of France and Great Britain signed a concord agreement to build a supersonic jetliner, hence the name of the plane that resulted: Concorde.

France and Great Britain each agreed to spend between £75 million and £85 million for the development of the plane, the Associated Press reported.

Together, Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation — predecessors of today's Airbus and BAE Systems — agreed to produce a four-engine, delta-wing supersonic airliner.

At the same time, engineers in the US and the Soviet Union were working on supersonic airliners of their own.

The American Boeing 2707 never made it past the drawing board, while the Soviets' Tupolev TU-144 made it into service but was quickly retired because of performance and safety problems.

As part of the agreement, the Concorde was built in the UK and France.

The above photo shows the Concorde being constructed at a British Aircraft Corporation factory in Bristol, UK, in 1967.

The engine selected to power the Concorde was the Olympus 593 turbojet.

The engine was developed by Rolls-Royce/Bristol Siddeley and Snecma.

The Olympus engine's afterburners gave the Concorde its signature smoky takeoffs.

Each engine produced 38,000 pounds of thrust.

The Concorde had features found on no other Western commercial airliner, such as the double delta wing.

Delta wings get their name from the Greek letter delta, which is shaped like a triangle.

Concorde planes also featured an adjustable drooping nose that gave pilots better visibility on takeoffs and landings.

In normal flight, the nose and visor were raised.

The Concorde was operated by a crew of three: two pilots and a flight engineer.

Flight engineers helped maintain the aircraft's center of gravity, cooling systems, fuel transfers, and other crucial tasks.

In 1967, the Concorde was presented to the public for the first time in Toulouse, France.

Members of the French Army band and Royal Air Force band played for the occasion.

The first Concorde prototype made its maiden flight on March 2, 1969.

The maiden flight lasted 27 minutes, the BBC reported. Its first supersonic flight followed on October 1, 1969.

More than a dozen airlines from around the world placed orders for the jet.

The sleek supersonic jet captivated the public immediately.

But the Concorde soon encountered opposition due to the loud sonic booms that resulted from breaking the sound barrier.

One of the byproducts of supersonic flight is the sonic boom, which can be unpleasant or distressing to those on the ground. As a result, the Concorde was limited to routes over water, with minimal time spent soaring over land.

In addition, residents near airports that were home to the Concorde fleet protested the amount of noise generated by the plane's four massive turbojet engines.

As a result, Concorde flights were further curbed.

Because of environmental and economic concerns stemming from the 1973 oil crisis, most of the Concorde's customers dropped their orders.

This left British Airways and Air France as the plane's only operators.

In total, 20 Concordes were produced, six of which were prototype test planes.

Of the 14 production Concordes, seven entered service with Air France and seven entered service with British Airways.

On January 21, 1976, two Concordes — one from each airline — took off simultaneously to mark the plane's first supersonic passenger flight.

The Air France flight flew to Rio de Janeiro by way of Senegal, while the British Airways plane flew to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.

Later that year, British Airways started scheduling transatlantic flights between London and New York.

Cruising at more than twice the speed of sound and an altitude of up to 60,000 feet, the Concorde could cross the Atlantic in just three hours — a major improvement over the seven hours it took for a conventional jumbo jet to make the crossing.

In the beginning, the 100-passenger interior was simple and a bit austere.

A display on the jetliner's left bulkhead showed when the plane reached the speed of Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound.

As the clientele became more posh, so did the decor.

Soon, the Concorde became the preferred airborne choice of the rich and famous.

In the 1990s, the Concorde transported celebrities and royal family members.

Frank Sinatra took a Concorde flight to London in 1984 on his way to a charity concert in Monaco.

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, explored Concorde's flight deck in 1987.

Ferguson earned her private pilot's license in 1987, and was the first woman in the royal family to do so, UPI reported.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to New York aboard a Concorde in 1997.

Blair flew to New York to attend a special session of the UN General Assembly.

Rock legend Sting served Champagne to Piers Morgan on a Concorde flight.

The two rubbed shoulders on a 2001 press flight.

The Concorde even served as the Queen Elizabeth II's royal transport.

Queen Elizabeth traveled on Concorde planes for trips to Kuwait, Barbados, Saudi Arabia, and the United States from the late 1970s until the Concorde was retired in 2003, according to the Royal Collection Trust .

Every day, the Concorde fleet was stocked with fine Champagne and Beluga caviar.

Concorde also had its own special sets of branded china.

The Concorde had a sparkling safety record until July 25, 2000, when an Air France Concorde burst into flames and crashed shortly after taking off.

The plane caught fire after a blown tire ruptured the Concorde's fuel tanks, and 113 people died in the crash.

All 12 remaining Concordes were immediately grounded.

The planes were retrofitted with stronger fuel tanks.

Though the Concorde fleet returned to service in late 2001, the business never recovered.

By spring of 2003, Air France and British Airways announced their intention to permanently retire the Concorde fleet.

British Airways executives blamed cuts to Wall Street's travel budgets post-9/11 and skyrocketing maintenance costs for its decision to ground the plane, The Guardian reported.

Air France operated its last commercial Concorde flight from New York to Paris on May 31, 2003.

Onlookers waved goodbye to the Concorde as it climbed out of JFK Airport.

British Airways operated its last commercial Concorde flight on October 24, 2003, after it completed a farewell tour of the US.

Over the skies of London, the flight out of New York joined up with two other Concordes. Together, the three supersonic jets celebrated the occasion by landing in succession at Heathrow Airport.

In 27 years of service, British Airways' fleet of Concordes made 50,000 flights and carried more than 2.5 million passengers, according to British Airways .

Now, the Concordes have become museum pieces.

There are three places to see a Concorde on display in the United States: the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, and The Museum of Flight in Seattle.

For many, the end of the Concorde represented not just the end of an era, but also a step backward for mankind.

Despite being a financial flop, the Concorde's status as a technological marvel remains unblemished.

We no longer cross the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound. And we may never again.

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The State of Supersonic Flight – 2023

Since the dawn of time, humans have sought out faster, better, safer, cleaner and more efficient ways of traveling from “A” to “B”. From camels and horses to sailboats, then from steamships to railways and more recently from cars to planes, there has always been a need — a demand — to reach far-flung destinations for commerce, family & friendships, opportunities, power & politics, learning, exploration, romance, adventure and so much more.

We aren’t going to go backwards or be stuck forever at the same air speed we’ve been flying at for the past 60 years (Mach 0.85, 652mph, 1,050kph). Numerous ventures are promising a resurgence of supersonic, hypersonic and point-to-point/orbital travel – just the next chapter of air travel, not the final one (think “beam me up” and “warp drives”). They all envision a future where everyone can explore the world and eventually, the stars above.

Yes, environmental concerns, climate change, noise and equality issues all have to be addressed. We cannot advance technology to the detriment of the our communities, neighbors, wildlife and the planet. Those challenges, along with the usual engineering, finance, business, regulatory considerations are mere bumps in the road towards the future.

Vik Kachoria President & CEO Spike Aerospace, Inc.

A Brief Update on Supersonic and Hypersonic Flight Programs – 2023

My quick assessment of the “State of Supersonic Flight” as of the end of 2023. Please share your insights and help me fill in the gaps unintentionally created.

Supersonic Flight Programs

CEO Max Kachoria has 40 years of experience including stints at NASA, GE, entrepreneurial ventures, investment banking and aerospace consulting and investing.

The test aircraft, a single pilot (no passengers), single engine, Mach 1.4, limited range demonstrator was originally expected to fly in 2021 but, due to typical aircraft program delays, first flight was pushed to 2022. In October 2023, the first flight again had to be pushed back, this time to 2024 as NASA and LM ensure aircraft safety and integration. Just announced on Dec 11, 2023, NASA will unveil the X-59 publicly on January 12, 2024.

The supersonic community is looking forward to the first flight of the X-59 and the sonic boom data it will generate. NASA promises the design, data and research will be available to companies involved in supersonic development.

The company has also been building out manufacturing facilities in Greenboro, NC. They have partnered with three companies to design, build and test a custom engine for their supersonic jet, the Overture.

Boom claims to have raised over $700m from mostly undisclosed angel investors and also recently from Saudi Arabia NEOM.

CEO Blake Scholl as a high school student built and sold a web hosting company before dropping out to attend Carnegie Mellon. He worked as a software engineer and manager at Amazon before management roles at two startups and Groupon.

CEO Norris Tie worked as a propulsion at Lockheed Martin and elsewhere for 3 years before pursuing an MBA at Stanford University.

Hypersonic Flight Programs

CEO Sassie Duggleby was in systems engineering and mission management at Virgin Orbit prior to launching Venus Aerospace. Prior to Virgin she worked in fiber optics, biotech and trailer manufacturing.

CEO Mikhail Kokorich has founded several aerospace companies, including Momentus in Santa Clara. Momentus privately raised $143m and went public in 2021 but only after Kokorich was forced to resign Momentus due to pressure from the US DoD because of his Russian nationality.

CEO AJ Piplica has a wealth of experience in hypersonic and aircraft design. Prior to Hermeus, AJ was CEO of Generation Orbit and a senior engineer at SpaceWorks.

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Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President, Dies in Helicopter Crash at 63

The hard-line Shiite cleric was seen as a possible successor to Iran’s supreme leader. Mr. Raisi’s death comes at a moment of turbulence for a country facing a deepening conflict with Israel.

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By Erika Solomon and Farnaz Fassihi

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president and a top contender to succeed the nation’s supreme leader, was killed on Sunday in a helicopter crash . He was 63.

A conservative Shiite Muslim cleric who had a hand in some of the most brutal crackdowns on opponents of the Islamic Republic, Mr. Raisi was a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a devoted upholder of religious rule in the country.

Mr. Raisi’s presidency was shaped by two major events: the 2022 nationwide uprising, led by women and girls, demanding the end to the Islamic Republic’s rule and the government’s brutal crushing of that movement; and the current Middle East war with Israel, with which it had a long history of clandestine attacks.

As the president under Iran’s political system, Mr. Raisi did not set the country’s nuclear or regional policy . But he inherited a government that was steadily expanding its regional influence through a network of proxy militia groups and a nuclear program that was rapidly advancing to weapons-grade uranium enrichment levels following the United States’ exit from a nuclear deal.

Mr. Raisi endorsed and supported both of these policies and viewed them as essential for Iran to maintain its influence in the region and to exercise leverage over the West.

His death came as a yearslong shadow war became one of direct confrontation in the wake of Israel’s military assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Mr. Raisi was born in the northeastern city of Mashhad to a family of clerics, and he studied at the country’s famous seminary in Qum before participating as an 18-year-old in the 1979 Islamic revolution, which deposed Iran’s shah. Just two years later, Mr. Raisi became a judge in the newly created Islamic Republic, beginning a steady ascent to the top of Iranian politics.

Like Mr. Khamenei and his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic revolution, Mr. Raisi donned a cleric’s black turban, one that is reserved for “sayyids,” or people who trace their lineage back to the Prophet Muhammad.

The issue of succession in Iran has become more pressing because Mr. Khamenei is 85 and frail. The selection of the next supreme leader is an opaque process of political rivalries and jockeying. Under the Constitution, an elected body of clerics called the Assembly of Experts picks the supreme leader.

Mr. Raisi was viewed as one of the top contenders for that role and was favored by the hard-line faction, as was Ayatollah Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, an influential cleric who helps run his father’s office. Mr. Raisi’s death essentially paves the path for the younger Mr. Khamenei to succeed his father.

Political analysts described Mr. Raisi as a loyal enforcer of Mr. Khamenei’s policies and a facilitator of the growing power of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran’s politics and economy.

“He was not someone exuding charisma. His speeches were not motivating people to the streets. He was executing policy,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House. “Above all, he was a regime insider. He was an ideologue who worked within the system and through the system.”

Mr. Raisi’s supporters, including conservative pundits on state media, praised him for reimposing strict religious and social rules, being intolerant of dissent and turning Iran’s policies away from the West toward more engagement with Russia and China.

From 2016 to 2019, Mr. Raisi was at the helm of Astan Quds Razavi, a powerful multibillion-dollar religious conglomerate under the control of Mr. Khamenei and believed to be one of his most significant sources of wealth.

In 2019, Mr. Raisi became the head of Iran’s judiciary, and during his tenure he oversaw some of the most brutal crackdowns on dissent. At least 500 people were killed during nationwide demonstrations in November 2019 in response to a spike in fuel prices. The judiciary arrested activists, journalists, lawyers and dual national citizens.

He became president in 2021 in an election that was widely seen as orchestrated to ensure his victory, with his most serious rivals having been disqualified.

Mr. Raisi campaigned as an anticorruption candidate but took up the presidency under a cloud of condemnation by government opponents and international rights groups. Rights groups highlighted Mr. Raisi’s background as a member of a four-person panel that ordered the execution of 5,000 political dissidents in 1988 without trials at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Mr. Raisi has not denied being part of the panel and said in a speech that he was a junior official appointed to the role by the supreme leader at the time.

“We lost a generation of political minds and activists who could have been important players in Iranian society,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Mr. Raisi, he argued, played a hand in several of the most repressive moments of Iranian history, in particular the crackdowns on antigovernment protests in 2009 and 2022.

Mr. Raisi took power three years after Donald J. Trump, as president, withdrew from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. After the United States exited the deal, Mr. Trump reimposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, hitting the country’s oil sales and banks. A year later, after Iran failed to reap the benefits of the nuclear deal, it returned to enriching uranium at a near weapons-grade level.

Mr. Raisi took office promising to pursue a “resistance diplomacy,” meaning a defiance of Western powers but an openness to negotiations, particularly with the United States, to return to the nuclear deal and to seek the removal of sanctions. But months of negotiations fell through in the fall of 2021, and no deal has been reached with the Biden administration.

One of Mr. Raisi’s most important foreign policy achievements as president was one that had long eluded his predecessors: the restoration of ties with Iran’s longtime regional adversary, Saudi Arabia. In 2023, the two nations signed a deal in Beijing to re-establish diplomatic relations. Although largely symbolic, the agreement was seen as key to defusing their regional rivalry.

Mr. Raisi prioritized forging closer relations with Russia and China and pivoting away from the West, saying that Iran could not trust the United States and Europe after the collapse of the nuclear deal. Mr. Raisi’s government reached a sweeping 25-year economic, security and military deal with China: Iran agreed to sell Beijing discounted oil in exchange for $400 billion investments in Iran by Chinese companies in a wide range of sectors.

He also traveled to Moscow frequently to meet his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir V. Putin, and they deepened security and military relations. Iran has sold drones to Russia, which has used them in its war in Ukraine, although Mr. Raisi has denied this role.

Mr. Raisi’s impact on domestic policy during his presidency has been felt far more deeply, and his legacy is likely to be a contested one. During his rule, the country suffered severe economic downturns, driven by international sanctions and high unemployment.

“If you want to think of his legacy, he left the country’s economy in ruins, and it has become more repressive,” said Sina Azodi, a lecturer on Iran at George Washington University. “Iran was never democratic or free, but, since 2021, political repression has increased. No voice of dissent is tolerated.”

Under Mr. Raisi’s watch, Iran’s currency plunged to a record low, climate change and mismanagement intensified water shortages , and the country was hit in January by the deadliest terrorist attack since the 1979 founding of the republic.

Mr. Raisi also oversaw a brutal crackdown on antigovernment protests that erupted in 2022 after the death of a 21-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini , while she was in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Her death set off a wave of protests led by women who took off their head scarves and called for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.

After many Iranian women defied the mandatory hijab rule and appeared in public for over a year without covering their hair, Mr. Raisi announced this spring that he was going to re-enforce the hijab rule. His government dispatched the morality police back on the streets in April, after having earlier said the force was abolished, and many arrests of women turned violent.

Allegations of human rights abuses, for which the United States imposed sanctions on Mr. Raisi in 2019, dogged him on the international stage until the last years of his life.

Last December, he canceled a visit to the United Nations in Geneva amid concerns that he could face arrest over his alleged role in the 1988 mass executions because Sweden had prosecuted a more junior Iranian judiciary official under crimes against humanity. But Mr. Raisi did attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York every year, delivering heated speeches that blamed the dissent in Iran on foreign enemies while portraying his country as a model of good governance and as an upholder of human rights.

Mr. Raisi is survived by his wife, Jamileh Alamolhoda, a university professor of philosophy and education and daughter of an ultra hard-line influential cleric, Ahmad Alamolhoda. The couple have two daughters and at least one grandchild.

Farnaz Fassihi is the United Nations bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the organization, and also covers Iran and the shadow war between Iran and Israel. She is based in New York. More about Farnaz Fassihi

Ed Perkins on Travel: Will supersonic travel return? Should you care?

Y ou may have seen some news about the progress of the Boom Supersonic Transport (SST) demonstrator, and that news raises the obvious questions, will supersonic travel return? Should you care? The short answers are "Probably yes" and "Probably no." If that's all you care to know, you can go right to the sports or cooking pages or sites. Read on for more detail.

Boom Technology is an outfit building Overture, the first commercial SST since Concorde. Ideally, the first completed plane will be delivered to a customer in 2029. It will cruise at Mach 1.7 (about 1,100 mph) and carry 64 to 80 passengers up to a nonstop range of about 4,900 miles. Boom claims Overture will be able to offer seats at prevailing subsonic business class fares.

In support of its development, Boom built a smaller scale model that is currently flying. So far, all flights have been subsonic, but brief tests above Mach 1 are planned soon. Boom has already obtained permission to fly faster than Mach 1 over an isolated corridor in Nevada. From a technical standpoint, everything is so far going to plan, and Boom has signed a few dozen orders from major airlines.

Faster has always been better in commercial aviation, but supersonic flight entails some important gotchas:

• Supersonic cruising is feasible only over water, due to the loud sonic boom that supersonic flight produces along its entire flight path over populated areas. NASA is working on a low-boom supersonic design, but Boom isn't counting on anything but overwater operations for Overture. That means supersonic nonstops are feasible only between the U.S. Northeast and westernmost European capitals such as London, Paris, Dublin, and Lisbon, or maybe from Tokyo to Seattle or Vancouver, but not San Francisco or Los Angeles. Even though a SST could do it, flights to/from the U.S. Midwest and central Europe is not feasible because of the amount of subsonic overland travel.
• A fuel stop adds close to two hours to nonstop flight time, so nonstop subsonics do about as well as one-stop supersonic trips.
• Supersonic flight gobbles up fuel. Concorde used several times the fuel per passenger than 747s did.
• SST economics when flying over land at less than Mach 1 are terrible, and so far I see no evidence that Overture would be able to fly economically on routes such as Chicago-London or Boston-Frankfurt with hundreds of subsonic miles to cover.
• Most planes capable of supersonic flight rely on gas-guzzling afterburners to cruise over Mach 1, and so far, only Concorde has been able to cruise three hours at Mach 2 without afterburner. Boom claims its engine partner will be able to avoid afterburner use, but that's an open question for now.

The clock imposes its own weird limits. Feasible ranges, with flights less than five hours, are too short for overnight flights. And adding a five- or six-hour time change to local departure time means a daytime eastbound transatlantic or transpacific flight takes a full day off the clock. Westbound is easier, where you arrive at an earlier clock time than when you departed. But you don't find many routes where a comfortable business-class bed overnight doesn't trump losing an entire day.

Boom says that, unlike Concorde, Overture can be profitable at prevailing business class fares. Even so, those are high fares, compared to economy. And seating will be no better than today's premium economy, compared with subsonic lie-flat beds at the same price.

All in all, I see a tough road for any SST except maybe a low-boom model that can fly over land. I flew Concorde (on a ridiculously cheap charter trip) from New York to Paris, and it was a real kick. But would I shell out thousands at list price? I don't think so – and I don't think many of you are likely to, either. So for now, Overture is an intriguing development, which I will follow with interest. But buy a ticket? Fuggetaboutit.

(Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at [email protected] . Also, check out Ed’s new rail travel website at www.rail-guru.com .)

©2024 Ed Perkins. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.