All this new engineering stuff for just one or two hours less flight time?
Couldn't this be cut easier and cheaper with more careful ground organisation like faster pax check-in, luggage-proceeding, ground ops, optimized atc etc.?
Like mentioned above: If they can handle all of these transsonic issues why not just build a true economic SST? Is this the message behind the sonic cruiser? If you can go transpacific why not cruise supersonic? This would certainly attract high-yield folks and really save time.
I'd love to see that SC become reality.