One of the major issues restricting the use of Concorde, and discouraging development of a replacement, is the assumed unacceptability of a sonic boom over land.
Could BA and the CAA be persuaded to allow one or two high altitude supersonic flights over the UK in the next few months so that we can see exactly what all the fuss is about?
Probably it will turn out to be unacceptable, in which case we will at least get some idea how much the boom will need to be suppressed to allow overland supersonic transport.
On the other hand it may turn out not to be that big a deal (and Concorde has flown supersonically over many countries in the past), in which case a replacement SST starts to look much more plausible
Last edited by Dr Jekyll; 6th May 2003 at 15:03.