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posted by on Wednesday November 16 2016, @09:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the is-that-fast-enough-for-you? dept.

One of the odd aspects of modern air travel is that it's not really getting any faster. Ever since British Airways retired its money-losing supersonic Concorde in 2003, airlines have generally stuck to top speeds of around 615 miles per hour. That'll get you from New York to San Francisco in five or six hours, depending on the winds, but you can't find a plane that will get you there significantly sooner.

We've largely learned to tolerate our slow, boring aircraft. But there's a compelling case that we shouldn't — that air travel should actually be much, much quicker.

Right now there are a host of energetic startups and NASA engineers working on sleek new supersonic jets that could fly twice as fast as today's commercial planes, if not faster. These jets would be major upgrades on the noisy, fuel-squandering Concordes of old, and they could be ready within the decade.

When you talk to people working on these super-fast planes, it's hard not to get swept up in the excitement. Take Blake Scholl, the CEO of Boom, a startup that's working with Virgin Galactic to put a new supersonic business jet into service by the early 2020s. He envisions a day when anyone could cross the Pacific or Atlantic in just a few short hours. "It changes how you think about the world," he tells me.

So what say you, Soylentils? Do the political, environmental, technical and economic challenges standing against these efforts outweigh the benefits of supersonic air travel? Should supersonic flights become common or even ubiquitous?


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  • (Score: 2) by goodie on Wednesday November 16 2016, @01:57PM

    by goodie (1877) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @01:57PM (#427504) Journal

    Did you play the lottery that day? Because it sounds to me like you were extra lucky ;-).

    The circumstances of air travel also matter I think. If you're alone, travelling for business with a cabin luggage only, it can be a lot faster (if you have other ways to cut through security and other lines, e.g., with business tickets or nexus for the US etc.). If you're in coach with family, luggage etc. then it's a lot more complicated. The basic process is the same, it's the coordination that becomes a nightmare ;-).

    I have to travel from North America to Europe for business in a few weeks and I've been dreading it ever since I've had to buy my ticket. Sure I don't like flying to begin with (the physics of it are so mystical to me that it makes me very uncomfortable...) but the whole waiting/security theater just makes it worse...

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  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday November 16 2016, @02:23PM

    by isostatic (365) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @02:23PM (#427514) Journal

    Quite normal. My best time was 3 minutes from taxi to gate.

    But yes, that's hand luggage only, I know what I'm doing, where I'm going, and have access to fast track security etc. At a large airport like Heathrow they have a 35 minute cut-off at the entrance to security, and a doors-close at 20 minutes to wheels up, which is a right pain.

    But you're right, when I flew back from Sydney with a 3 year old, a 9 month old, and the wife, it took us a hell of a long time to check in the 18 bags and marshalling the trolleys, still far easier than travelling on a train or coach though.

    • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday November 16 2016, @02:54PM

      by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday November 16 2016, @02:54PM (#427524) Journal

      The problem is not the latency, it's the jitter. I've manage to go from plane hitting tarmac to being outside the airport in under 10 minutes a couple of times at Heathrow, but I've also had it take well over an hour. Arriving in the US, I've managed to clear immigration in 5 minutes, have my bag be the first off the flight and be looking around an unfamiliar airport for a taxi under ten minutes after getting off the plane, but I've also spent an hour and a half queueing at immigration.

      Unless you have a flexible ticket (add 50% to the cost) and frequent flights, you end up allowing for the worst case at each step, which quickly adds up to a few hours.

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