>"There is even talk that Rolls may be working on a supersonic engine that solves the environmental problems of the sonic boom." <
Is this journalistic oversimplification? How would/could such an engine work, other than by perturbing the mach cone?
For Boeing to statr deliveries of a sonic cruiser in 2006-2007 suggests they may be further along in the design of this plane then they've publicly let on. I think it was Aviation Week that indicated some wind tunnel work had already been done. Might it be that the folks in Renton waited until Airbus launched the A-380 knowing the near-impossibility of Airbus developing both the 380 and a sonic cruiser analog like E-Squared at the same time?