It’s been several years now since the Concorde ceased making flights between New York and London or Paris. But the demand for rapid long-range travel has never cooled. Fortunately, several entrepreneurs are well-positioned to meet that demand – with supersonic business jets.
Currently, the fastest business jet on the market is the Citation X. At 0.9 Mach it speeds along at 90% of the speed of sound (761 mi/hr), putting its top speed around 685 mph (1102 kph). But that is top speed, not consistent cruising speed. And even that number still puts a flight from New York to London at around 5 hours. Wouldn’t it be great if that were closer to 3 hours?
The supersonic business jets on the drawing boards and being prototyped now promise to do just that.
One frontrunner is the Aerion SBJ (Supersonic Business Jet). Backed by financing from Texas billionair Robert Bass, and the expertise of several highly experienced executives and engineers, Aerion plans to deliver the first model by 2011. While any business plan can go awry, especially when breaking new ground, the company has a solid plan and realistic technology.
The SBJ will use a considerable amount of technology already in existence, so the risk of failure due to untried methods is much lower. At the same time, the plane design is innovative in its handling of technical problems like airflow and sonic boom generation. But those two issues are being well handled.
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