Supersonic commercial flights again in the near future?

Well, have I "missed a step" somewhere as we say in French? Has this initiative already been discussed here before?

The underenclosed article is in French, but basically it says that a start-up called "boom" had already collected U$ 30 millions of public participation to build a future supersonic transport slightly smaller than Concorde, able to travel at Mach 2,2, much more economic in cost, notably jet fuel.

Are these guys serious? Surely developping a supersonic transport will cost MUCH more than U$ 30 millions?

La start-up Boom veut ressusciter les vols supersoniques | Silicon 2.0

Rgds

 

They are buildind a 1/3 scale prototype to test out the general design in Denver.

Boom - XB-1

 

Interesting, thanks. I suppose that someone would have had to come with the idea of bringing back supersonic commercial flights sooner or later, and that about 15 years after the last Concorde commercial flight this should not come as a surprise, but these guys do indeed have a mighty task ahead...

Rgds

 

There was also a business proposing to bring a few of the Concordes/SSTs back into service. Didn't go anywhere.

CW

 

Most of the airframes were perhaps slowly approaching their fatigue level limits (although I have n dat about this?); it was not modern technology, and there might have been problems with liabilities for the manufacturers...

(There was an article about the "Vulcan to the sky" in "Aeroplane Monthly" a few couples of issue back; basically, it was the refusal of "the industry" to support it further and assume liabilities that grounded it)

Rgds

 

BA reworked their concordes after the Af crash and flew them for a while. The load factors were lowish at forst but towards the end they were fully booked and provided a big halo for BA. heathrow being a hub lots of people took BA first class one way to do concorde the other at the beginning or end of a trip. T it. Ba offered to buy the 7 remaining mothballed Af planes to have a worthwhile fleet and the French said Non. The "manufacturer" is part of Airbus now. No french planes flying, the word was no spare parts support which killed it.


The recent plan for concprde to fly again was more one of charters and thrill/airshow rides with one or two airframes run by a not for profit..
No spare parts support was the biggie.
Plus it also costs a fortune to keep 60's tech in the sky.

When Ba pulled their concordes from service Branson and Virgin said he wanted the planes. His pitch was the the British government had given them to Ba which was a private company(although orig BOAC), so correctly the planes did not belong to BA and the Gov should give them to the next british arilne that wanted to use them ie Virgin.

A Virtgin exec told me he was so happy it never went through, because the maintanance costs were horrendous, and there was not really going to be parts support. he just couldnt see the economics. As I understood it, the airframes still had quite a bit of life left in them.

In any event I doubt any concorde flights would have survived the great recession of 09.


There is one sitting outside on barge next the the intrepid air and space museum in NYC.
I remember they flew it over form the uk, drained the fluids rolled it off the runway at JFK ontot he barge and towed it over to the intrepid where it sits in all weathers. In winter covered in snow it looks like a sad swan.

The issue with these new proposals as I see it is who is goign to fly them. Yes crossing the Atlantic in 3 hours is great, but is it really that much better than doing it in your much plusher gulfstream in 6 hours. So if its going to be first class type passengers, well many airlines with their lay flat beds are really comfortable.

I do see there is one startup selling daily seats on G5 to got to london, so maybe there is a model.

 

Well, I've been twice at the Intrepid museum and seen the one that is here, and yes, it didn't look particularly happy to me; but I see the other one (an ex Air France) that is at Roissy Charles de Gaulle often, usually when I leave the airport on my way home, after flying in back from somewhere, from the cab'. It is supposed to be displayed more or less in take-off / landing attitude, but really looks like a sad bird too...
There is also one in the Musée de l'Air at le Bourget. And yes, it is technology from the sixties; even from the fifties, in some ways.

Rgds

 

Udvar-Hazy (Air & Space) in DC also has one on display (indoors).

CW

 

That's the one museum I have missed...so far! I was in the Smihtsonian on Washington D.C mall, and saw what they had inside, but have been unable to make the extra miles to Udvar-Hazy. Still hope to visit that one one day.

Rgds

 

Certainly worth a visit. DC's Metro still doesn't go out that far (Silver line now goes as far as Reston), so it's a drive.

CW

 

There is also a BA one at Heathrow. AN AF in the smithsonian hanger at Dulles, various prototypes here and there. Pretty much everyone built is around except for the Af one that crashed. I think Airbus even has one out back somewhere.

The intrepid one is sad to me because it was fully functioning passenger jet with time and hours to go, it was flown to NY and put on a barge an sort of left to rot in the open.. I see the shuttle is under cover, pity they didnt see fit to preserve an operational concord the same way.

 

I remember checking out the prototype Concorde at the 75 Paris airshow. Hard to think that was nearly 42 years ago but I still remember walking through the cabin as a kid and was thinking how small it was inside compared to the DC-8 that I flew on 6 months prior.

The last time I saw a Concorde was at Dulles about 10 years ago.

 

Yes, it Is Small Inside; almost claustrophobic to some.

Rgds

 

Seattle's Museum of Flight has a BA Concorde which appears to be well kept.

I was quite surprised at how skinny the tube was inside. Similar in cabin width and height to the regional jet I often take that sits only 4 abreast. The cabin is at least twice as long, though.
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Small inside, but then you were not in it for too long. Lots of legroom between seats, but you did sit shoulder to shoulder as in coach.

Great food and wines, and you could make out the curvature of the earth through the tiny window.

Seats towards the back were significantly noisier, and the cabin wall there felt warm tot the touch.
Cockpit was amazing and no one was resting lots of dials spining etc. Plane was trimmed at speed through fuel transfer.
There was also some guage in the cockpit to measure radiation. Which is inetresting because it was not flying so much higher than say a G5, are the billionaires getting radiated in their jets?.

Neat part was the check in was right near the gate, they had their own security and a super duper lounge in kennedy full or eames chairs etc, and a big glass window where you could see the plane being prepared, all very 2001 space odysey. Pre 911 you could show up at the airport 30 mins before and be on your way. Plane also arrived at heathrow when no otehr flights arrived so passport and baggage was 15-20 mins max. Problem pre heathrow express was finding a cab, as it was an odd time to arrive.

Coming to Ny you arrived before you left.

Ba was really good way back when allowing the use of mileage to upgrade to concorde, kept more than one person flying Ba.

 

Ive been to the ones in DC, NYC, Seattle and Barbados (Barbados.....of all places). I also was fortunate enough to purchase a 9 foot travel industry display model years ago. The cost of crating and shipping from London to Los Angeles was more than the model.

Locations of Concords:

https://www.daftlogic.com/information-locations-of-concorde-planes.htm

RE: Boom. I wish them luck. They will need to clear FAA regulations. I also think they will run out of funds, but hopefully some one like Gulfstream picks them up and finishes the project.

 

This is the one at Duxford IWM.. She's thin on the outside and probably wouldn't suit today's plus size traveller.

Surprising amount of length of fuselage dedicated to engineer section.. and fascinating wing shape!
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You can take a bus to the airport and then there is a shuttle from the airport to the museum. That's what I did and it was well worth it

 

Good stuff, Alex. I was sitting here thinking about all the talk of flying in the Concord and all the fancy stuff that is now dated. THEN I got to thinking of flying in Bill Harah's Ford Tri Motor with the wicker seats, noise , and vibrations as we were cruising at 105mph. Couldn't see the curvature of the earth, though.

 

Airbus is supposedly still working at it.

Concorde Mark 2: Airbus files plans for new supersonic jet - Telegraph

 

There is a Concorde mounted on a pedestal, right next to a Tupolev. side by side. It is a large transportation museum...south of Frankfurt an hour or so. I think it is called Sinshem
amazing place to visit. put it in your bucket list.
I was shocked to see children, elderly adults, etc. climbing onboard either plane, which were tilted up at a good 30 degree angle, and some grab rails to help you not to fall and slide....and then...to my surprise, there is a stainless steel slide to bring you back down to the ground quickly.
All the above obviously exposes all to a high risk of fall and slips, and injury.

Do you want to know how many signs and warnings of risk of injuries I saw in the entire museum?
Zero...Ziltch...Nada!
we are a litigious society...no doubt about that.
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It was a great experience to fly in one. The way air travel SHOULD be. But, it certainly wasn't inexpensive.

CW

 

The museum at Sinsheim has a pretty good collection of cars, too, with several Ferraris. Seems like they had a replica Fokker Dr.I, too. It was not too far from where I lived in Mauer.

 

I know the place, its only 140 miles (220 kms) from our family house in France (which is right on the French-German border), a two-hour drive. Sinsheim is mid-way beetwen Mannheim and Heilbronn. The weather prediction for the week-end being good, who knows...

Rgds

 

Yes, that's probably what astonish us the most each time we are in the US. But it is slowly coming in here also...

Rgds