Relative to say Concorde, acquisition costs and direct operating costs need to decrease and # of revenue-generating flights/time need to increase for viability. All of these point to slower speeds. If the perceived boom noise of the "quiet" supersonic designs is low enough, supersonic overland flight could potentially be permitted (NASA is trying to make this possible via this X-plane), with vastly more addressible market. Low boom limits the Mach number.
thfuran|2 years ago
V_Terranova_Jr|2 years ago
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27386119
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35124271
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35126733
Relative to say Concorde, acquisition costs and direct operating costs need to decrease and # of revenue-generating flights/time need to increase for viability. All of these point to slower speeds. If the perceived boom noise of the "quiet" supersonic designs is low enough, supersonic overland flight could potentially be permitted (NASA is trying to make this possible via this X-plane), with vastly more addressible market. Low boom limits the Mach number.