Don't all bid at once...
This copyrighted story from Air Transport Intelligence may be of interest:
Virgin's Branson "in talks" over Sonic Cruiser
Kieran Daly, London (11May01, 07:02 GMT, 764 words)
Virgin Atlantic Airways has given the most explicit airline support yet to Boeing’s proposed high-speed Sonic Cruiser with a public declaration that it intends to buy the embryonic aircraft for entry into service in 2008.
The UK carrier is pushing Boeing to settle on as large a design as possible to serve business- and premium economy-class passengers on similar routes to those flown by its conventional widebodies.
Speaking as he took delivery of Virgin’s latest new Boeing 747-400 at London Gatwick Airport, Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson said: “I am incredibly excited about the opportunities – I truly believe this aeroplane will change the way the world flies. We expect to order between three and six aircraft.”
Asked how likely he thinks it is that Boeing will actually build the Sonic Cruiser, Branson says: “I think that once Boeing have got the bit between their teeth it is very rare that they don’t deliver. They have certainly got the bit between their teeth this time and I think everything is going for it.
“The only thing that holds it back is governments not being brave about building more airport capacity all over the world. But I will certainly put time and money into working at it and making it become reality.”
Ironically, given that Boeing decided to concentrate on the Sonic Cruiser at the expense of competing with Airbus in the 500-seat class, Branson says: “We are saying we would like as big an aircraft as possible because of slot constraints at airports.” Virgin has already ordered the Airbus A380.
In practice, he says, ideally he wants at least a 300-seater with initial range to reach the US West Coast from London – about 9,000km (5,000nm). At M0.95 he expects a time-saving of 1-2hr on that route, about 1hr on London-New York and 2hr to Hong Kong. Eventually he hopes Boeing will develop a version with the range to serve London-Sydney direct 3.5-4hr quicker than now.
Branson notes: “This is as near as damnit Concorde but with reasonable costs. The tremendous advantage above Concorde is being very quiet and cheap in seat-mile terms, and environmentally friendly because it flies below the ozone layer. Even if Concorde comes back it only has a few years to go. We like pioneering and we would love to be a launch customer for it.”
Boeing is working hard to kill off the perception of the Sonic Cruiser as being only a premium-fare model, but Branson makes clear that, while Virgin will not surcharge tickets, in practice it will rarely if ever offer anything cheaper than full-price economy fares. “If we have empty seats then we will fill them. But basically it is going to be premium economy. We will have Sonic Cruiser and widebodies on the same routes,” he says.
Virgin managing director Steve Ridgway adds: “By the time this aircraft appears the premium economy market will be a really big thing.”
In fact Boeing is unlikely to build the initial version as big as Branson would like. Vice president product strategy & development John Roundhill – now effectively vice president Sonic Cruiser, he says – explains: “Generally speaking we are looking at something smaller than a Boeing 777. We prefer 767-size – perhaps a little bigger.”
He also talks about a 100-seat version, saying: “Some customers have indicated that perhaps this could start at a smaller size.” And Branson, sitting next to him, floats the notion of a “super business jet that could land at secondary airports”.
Roundhill continues: “We could envisage a fairly large version of it that would be a great London-Los Angeles or Singapore aircraft. You can envisage shrinking it and pushing the range out to 9,000nm (16,700km) which would allow US West Coast to SE Asia. What we are looking at right now is what the family looks like. The aircraft configuration could also have different cross-sections.
“When we launched the 777 it had a design range of about 5,500nm (10,000km) and the 747-100 was about 5,000nm (9,000km) also. This aircraft will start with at least 7,000nm (13,000km) and we are planning even longer.”
His own estimate for time-savings as a result of the Sonic Cruiser’s higher cruise speed is 1.5hr on London-Los Angeles and 1hr on US transcontinental services. And in a particularly bullish prediction he adds: “For London-New York we recalculated and it is 1hr 15min on average depending on the headwinds.”
Roundhill says Boeing is now targeting 2008 or “late 2007” for entry into service following a first flight extremely tentatively slated for 17 December 2006 – the 103rd anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news