A new aerospace company has entered the race to provide supersonic commercial air travel. On Monday, a US-based company named Hermeus announced plans to develop an aircraft that will travel at speeds of up to Mach 5. Such an aircraft would cut travel time from New York to Paris from more than 7 hours to 1.5 hours.
Hermeus said it has raised an initial round of funding led by Khosla Ventures, but it declined to specify the amount. This funding will allow Hermeus to develop a propulsion demonstrator and other initial technologies needed to make its supersonic aircraft a reality, Skyler Shuford, the company's chief operating officer, told Ars.
The announcement follows three years after another company, Boom Supersonic, declared its own intentions to develop faster-than-sound aircraft. As of January 2019, Boom had raised more than $140 million toward development of its Overture airliner, envisioned to travel at Mach 2.2, which is about 10 percent faster than the Concorde traveled.
Officials with Boom Supersonic have said its planes could be ready for commercial service in the mid-2020s, and they added that Virgin Group and Japan Airlines have preordered a combined 30 airplanes.
(Score: 2) by black6host on Tuesday May 14 2019, @05:45AM
Although I applaud those who think of supersonic flight it is only because I don't think the rich have enough ways to dispose of their money.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Appalbarry on Tuesday May 14 2019, @06:11AM (2 children)
Just think! Just imagine that within our lifetime we could see people land on the moon and enjoy supersonic trans - Atlantic travel!
The future has arrived!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @06:43AM
NASA is working on quiet supersonic tech. That could be a significant upgrade over Concorde.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:46PM
Just wait till the alt-right creeps hear about this!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Tuesday May 14 2019, @07:12AM (3 children)
How high do these things fly? What type of fuel do they run?
I did some quick calculations and in a SpaceX, it would take 10.377 minutes to go from New York to London at full speed. At $62 million each way, it's a bit pricey, but its currently the fastest trip across the ocean.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday May 14 2019, @08:20AM
Not to mention that the landing and luggage collection will be a bit tricky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 14 2019, @11:57AM (1 child)
Too lazy to RTFA, but... I would imagine this thing to be sized like a Citation X, room for maybe 8 passengers, not much cargo. Because, when you're going to charge $25K per ticket, each way, JFK-CDG, you're not going to fly a scheduled service - a fleet of 6-10 of these things available on-demand for charter seems like the most public service that a Mach 5 jet would be providing in tomorrow's world.
Of course, there are another 60-100 potential buyers of the fastest civilian jet in the world, at virtually any price.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 15 2019, @02:35AM
For reference, I believe the Citation X is (or recently was) the fastest available civilian jet - approximately 350 copies sold for approximately $23M a piece since it was introduced approximately 25 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_Citation_X [wikipedia.org]
If they can keep the Mach 5 under $50M, I bet they can sell 50 of them as fast as they can deliver them.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @08:39AM (6 children)
The concorde wasn't scrapped just because it was overengineered and full or risks, but also because it guzzled fuel at an alarming rate.
Updated tech or not, even regular planes are a huge environmental concern due to their fuel consumption, something that goes more than twice as fast as the concorde gotta be one heck of an innefficient machine.
But hey it's okay, you can't tax kerosene anyway. The car owners will pay green taxes instead of us, it would be entitled of them not to.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 14 2019, @09:14AM
22,000 litres per hour [wikipedia.org]
vs 767-300 at ~6,000 per hour.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @09:31AM (4 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft#Regional_flights [wikipedia.org]
Regional flights averages:
A321neo - 2.19L/100km (107.4 mpg‑US)
Boeing 737 MAX 9 - 2.3 L/100 km (103 mpg‑US)
Airbus A220-300 - 2.23 L/100 km (105 mpg‑US)
Long haul flights:
Boeing 777-300ER - 2.91 L/100 km (81 mpg‑US)
Airbus A330neo-900 - 2.48 L/100 km (95 mpg‑US)
Airbus A380 - 3.27 L/100 km (72 mpg‑US) - and this is said to be the gas guzzler for modern planes.
So, yeah, better than commuting to work every day with that car. Better to take a flight than that road trip to same destination. Even better for environment. A family of 4 or less will produce less CO2 flying than driving to destination. That is just by the numbers. The only way to save more fuel is to take a train or bus. Most efficient buses would give you about 0.5L/100km.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @09:34AM (1 child)
Just to add, supersonic travel would definitely pollute a lot more and would be more irresponsible. But it would certainly be limited and those people pollute a lot more already flying in planes - their seats are much larger (so more fuel consumption per seat) and they fly more often.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:23PM
But sufficiently more irresponsible to even be worth the mention?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Muad'Dave on Tuesday May 14 2019, @11:03AM
> Boeing 737 MAX 9 - 2.3 L/100 km (103 mpg‑US)
Boeing 737 MAX 9 - 2.3 L/100 km (0 mpg‑US)
Too soon?
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:00PM
That's just fuel consumption. Methane production as a by-product of eating road-food is also significantly higher on a cross-country car trip.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday May 14 2019, @11:11AM
Paging Thunderf00t, paging Thunderf00t, ...
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:49PM
Flying from New York to Paris.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 14 2019, @04:47PM
"Bob_super announces plan to build a plane at least twice as fast as what those morons say their Blender render might maybe one day achieve, though we all know they'll run out of money long before reaching supersonic speeds"
Give me VC money ! My plan is every bit as good as theirs !