Sonic cruiser?
The only thing keeping an aircraft from going faster are the rules of no super sonic flight over land, and aircraft manufacturers pandering to what the airlines want, pilots that can't handle fast aircraft, cost issues related to ticket prices and such.
I have no doubt if the laws were changed and pilots were up to the task we would be up into the Mach speed levels.
The ONLY reason the Concorde program is dead is because the pilots were over gross and decided to fly an aircraft that they should have rolled out on the ground.
It was a great plane and could have led to better designed and more efficient super sonic aircraft.
Why is the SJ30 dead in the water? Why can't a Citation X bust the speed of sound? We know the Falcon 10 can and did. Put some real engines on it and scoot.
What's going on in aviation is just plain ignorance and backwards thinking.
Personally it's hard for me to believe anyone with real hours on a long trip, can't imagine how to make his plane go faster...sure at what cost, but even so, just sitting there all day long gets me to thinking there has to be a better way.