Boeing Hypersonic Aircraft Proposal

[procede]

Originally Posted by PAXboy

In the future, the costs alone will rule this out. The financial cost, the environment cost and the social cost. It was no longer considered appropriate to fly Concorde unless the stock holders had no choice or you were paying for yourself. They might find themselves a niche of those who want a bucket list trip without the full on cost of the edge of space - but this is not going to work. I'm sure that the companies will have lots of fun with the money.

Separate from cost, a big problem is that flying supersonic dramatically increases fuel burn, which decreases potential range. Adding a refueling stop will negate most of a time advantage.

Concorde could barely make it across the Atlantic taking reserve fuel requirement into account.