All kidding aside, why isn’t there hypersonic commercial air travel by now? Yeah, I know that the aviation industry is hamstrung by noise regulations, etc., but I continue to marvel at how little innovation has occurred in the last 50 years in the technology of air travel compared to the first 50 years when it went from the Wright Bros to the Comet, 707 etc
Building a hypersonic commercial air is very complex and expensive compared to a unmanned hypersonic missile..
The major innovation in commercial air travel is how many seats they can now cram in the same jet body built in 1978.