new supersonic jet

[chinchilla]

Heard this story on an American news station the other day: a supersonic commercial jet (Boeing) will travel mach 7. Passengers will be shuttled around the world in minutes? Plane will fly by 2030. Anyone else hear about this? If true, what will it do to the commercial airline industry?

[Genghis the Engineer]

Tales like this escape from time to time from companies future projects departments.

No doubt the technology is there and such a thing could be developed in 30 years, but...

(1) In the current and foreseeable climate the market wants bigger and cheaper, not faster.

(2) The technical risk is huge.

(3) The rest of the manufacturing industry would just sit back and watch Boeing bankrupt itself. Developing such a beast wouldn't be viable without huge government subsidies.

G

[MikeSamuel]

Have no idea what is actually behind all thes stories, but I think they are proposing to use "ramjet" technology (correct me if I'm wrong) - These apparently just use the speed of the air outside for propulsion of something, meaning that the faster they go, the more power they produce. Apparently, the would be no windows on the things, but they would show videos of outside to combat claustraphobia (?) ...Sounds a little wacky to me, but we'll have to see

Regards

Mike (edited for foolishness)

[This message has been edited by MikeSamuel (edited 30 May 2001).]

[Golden Monkey]

I think that sort of speculation is based upon this NASA trial which I think takes place in June.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1351000/1351234.stm

[SpeedBird22]

Somehow I get the feeling that in 2030 we'll all still be buzzing around in A320's and the like.

Major widespread supersonic passenger travel just won't happen in the foreseeable future for the reasons Genghis pointed out. It just ain't viable.

I expect manufacturers and airlines to focus on passenger and crew comfort and fares rather than speed.