Posted on 12/05/2017 9:52:11 AM PST by DFG
Flight times from London to New York could be slashed to just 3 hours 15 minutes by 2025, thanks to a $10 million (£7.45 million) investment from Japan Airlines. Boom Supersonic is developing a 55-seat passenger plane that it says will halve flight times and will be faster, quieter and more affordable to fly than Concorde. As part of the deal Japan's number two carrier has the option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft and will provide its knowledge and experience as an airline to hone the aircraft design and help refine the passenger experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I do that route frequently. With a tailwind (usually eastbound), the actual flight time is very often under 6 hours already. But the problem with air travel, at least on that route which is so profitable for airlines because of the business customers, is not so much the actual time in the air. Rather, it is the getting to the airport (which can be a nightmare in NY), getting from the airport on the other end (Heathrow is far from the “City of London” where a lot of the business happens), passport lines (can be long upon arrival in the UK), time on the tarmac on either end and circling Heathrow if the flight gets there too soon or at a busy time of day. Also awful is the fact that the vast majority of flights there are overnight and it is too short of a flight to get much sleep. All these miseries would remain even if the time in the air was 2 hours shorter (and of course it would only make sense for day flights). Now if you could fly to China super fast, I could see that making more sense.
Engines are probably better than 30 years ago which will reduce fuel intake and create some efficiencies. It will make it more economical, but still out of reach for us peasants.
Easy to remember the name when it EXPLODES...... BOOM!
Isn’t that the after-afterburner?
NY to Paris is a little over 7 hours in a conventional jet. The 2.5 hour time savings is not sufficient to justify a huge price difference.
Now, in the Pacific, if you have something with the required fuel range, it’s different. LA to Tokyo is a little under 12 hours. Australia is 15 hours. Cut THAT in half, or better, and you might get customers.
Glad to see someone expanding on my thoughts. SSTs would have become more developed and eventually cheaper if the airlines crossing the Pacific had invested more in them. Same goes for deregulating them.
Would it land in NYC before it takes off in London?
Agree. I’ll get excited when I can fly to and from Hong Kong in 7 hours.
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris....well, by ‘76 we’ll be A-OK.
GREAT album! I have the original vinyl, the CD and a High-Resolution 24-bit remastered music file. One of the first all digital recordings from the "Immortal Roger Nichols".
Walk Between Raindrops is my favorite. Whenever I go back to Miami that song constantly plays in my head.
Yea 55 passengers? And you thought a concorde ticket was expensive...
$10 million
I know, it’s like Dr. Evil demanding the princely sum of One Meellion Dollars.
Economies of scale. They only built 20 Concordes. not enough to make them at all cheaply. And they needed long runways, greatly limiting their use. Just being capable of landing on normal runways make this a more useful plane.
That would make the majority of aircraft infamous, since most have had some sort of mishap.
The afterburner burner.
My fav is “The Goodbye Look” - love the music...and the lyrics. A very tasty guitar helps, too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.