"After about 300 seconds, the test craft is supposed to break up and fall into the ocean."

Um.

I have been wondering when the super rich would get tired of 20hour flights in huge super jets and instead had a 5-6 hour flight in an 8 person jet.

Seems like it's starting to happen.

Pocket Ninja: Hm. That's gonna make joining the mile high club an even trickier endeavor.

I'd have to figure out what to do with the other 44 minutes.

I didn't have time to read the article, because I have to be in NYC in 46 minutes.

RexTalionis: Didn't one of the other hypersonic jet testbeds vibrate itself apart when it got itself up to speed?

This will never happen for a few reasons....

1) The actual time of the flight is a small portion of the travel time door to door. It may take you 10 hours door to door to do a 4 hour flight. Cut that down to 1 hour and you've only shaved 30% off your travel time.

2) Cost. People have shown that they'll make more to get less, not pay more to get more. Air travel is headed towards being a bus in the sky rather than the other direction.

3) Noise. People already complain about the super quiet airliners we have today. They'd never let something like this fly, especially with the sonic booms associated.

4) Pollution. Same as noise. This thing is going to dump huge amounts of bad stuff into the upper atmosphere.

5) Time value. When the Concorde was created, the idea was that people who valued their time could save it by spending more on a fast plane ticket. That is rapidly changing today with the ability of people to communicate remotely (video/teleconferencing/email/etc). In addition, planes are getting WiFi. Time in flight is no longer "dead time" to a businessman. He can work there just like he would in the office... he's not losing out on that time as much and therefore the cost isn't worth it.



If it does happen, it'll be a small business jet with a small production run for those without anything else to do with their money. Normal people like you and I will never benefit from something like this.

Imagine a world where energy costs are low enough that supersonic flight is economically viable.

/First we have to eliminate 60% of energy users.

Yawn.

We called that back in the 70s.

27-28 July 1976 : SR-71A sets speed and altitude records (Altitude in Horizontal Flight: 85,068.997 ft (25,929.030 m) and Speed Over a Straight Course: 2,193.167 miles per hour (3,529.560 km/h))

and

the "Speed Over a Recognized Course" record for flying from New York to London distance 3,508 miles (5,646 km), 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h), and an elapsed time of 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds, set on 1 September 1974

Child, please.

Bu..bu.. but chemtrails!!!

Pocket Ninja: Hm. That's gonna make joining the mile high club an even trickier endeavor.

I guess farkers will just have to settle with being twice daily members of the solo 8 feet under club.

EatHam: You won't make it through security in 46 minutes.

Came here to say this. ^

Give up on the scramjets, they only ever end up disintegrating or shaking themselves apart. Hybrid rocket engines are where it's at, a la Skylon.

Please, America, take this forward, because if it's left to us Brits it'll just plane never get off the ground.

wildcardjack: Imagine a world where energy costs are low enough that supersonic flight is economically viable.

/First we have to eliminate 60% of energy users.

Just put a nuclear reactor in each one. They'll pay for themselves when they hook up to the grid between flights!

95629: This will never happen for a few reasons....

walloftext

Yes, all of those reasons. And the fact that the aircraft in the article is unmanned and launched from the wing of a B-52. That also plays a minor role.

95629: This will never happen for a few reasons....

1) The actual time of the flight is a small portion of the travel time door to door. It may take you 10 hours door to door to do a 4 hour flight. Cut that down to 1 hour and you've only shaved 30% off your travel time.

2) Cost. People have shown that they'll make more to get less, not pay more to get more. Air travel is headed towards being a bus in the sky rather than the other direction.

3) Noise. People already complain about the super quiet airliners we have today. They'd never let something like this fly, especially with the sonic booms associated.

4) Pollution. Same as noise. This thing is going to dump huge amounts of bad stuff into the upper atmosphere.

5) Time value. When the Concorde was created, the idea was that people who valued their time could save it by spending more on a fast plane ticket. That is rapidly changing today with the ability of people to communicate remotely (video/teleconferencing/email/etc). In addition, planes are getting WiFi. Time in flight is no longer "dead time" to a businessman. He can work there just like he would in the office... he's not losing out on that time as much and therefore the cost isn't worth it.



If it does happen, it'll be a small business jet with a small production run for those without anything else to do with their money. Normal people like you and I will never benefit from something like this.

Even though it's not feasible for civil aviation, this has military applications which means it'll have all the development funding that the developers ask for it.

shower_in_my_socks: FTA: "it will accelerate to about 3,600 mph"


The X-15 was doing 4,000+ mph 50 years ago, and we still don't have airlines anywhere near that speed. I don't think this is going to do much for commercial air travel. Cool, though.

Pretty much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_2707
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_L-2000

Even at our cheap energy peak, with the full Space Age going on, it made no sense.

JolobinSmokin: I have been wondering when the super rich would get tired of 20hour flights in huge super jets and instead had a 5-6 hour flight in an 8 person jet.

Seems like it's starting to happen.

Pssh, 5-6 hours is way too long. They're going to go this way:
Spaceships!

A Dutch company is working on passanger travel via suborbital spaceships.

This is great except:

1) the lawyers will have a field day with the enviro-earth-huggers tying this up in court.

2) the lawyers will have another field day the first time someone's snowflake dies in an accident, or is potentially injured in a potential accident

3) The lawyers will sue when a country, (AAAAAACHinaOOOO!!!), excuse me, will create the same thing, but it will cost 1/2 the price, being unburdened by pesky regulatory safety rules regarding manufacturing or operating such a craft.

So, as Shakespeare once wrote, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers!"

czei: "After about 300 seconds, the test craft is supposed to break up and fall into the ocean."

Um.

"Flight 43 now arriving at Oahu...Midway...Guam...Palau...Manila..."

EatHam: You won't make it through security in 46 minutes.

Yeah, no kidding. You're gonna have to spend like 3 hours taking a cab over there, baggage check-in, security, and general "buffer zone" time. Your plane will probably be delayed anyways. You may end up on the tarmac for 4 hours. The fact that your trip a few states over will only take 20 min is irrelevant, it's still basically your entire day.

FlashHarry: markie_farkie: Meh.. Let me know when it's 90 minutes from New York to Paris, and everyone gets Spandex jackets.

what a beautiful wonderful world it would be.

czei: "After about 300 seconds, the test craft is supposed to break up and fall into the ocean."

Um.

Yeah, its a test flight to test an engine. It doesn't have any landing abilities and couldn't slow down to land if had them, creating an aircraft that could would be probably 10x the cost. So its options are 1) keep flying till it crashes somewhere in Asia, or 2) Self Destruct.

Barry Newman unavailable for comment.

Given the amount of fuel this will use, it's going to be military-only for the foreseeable future.

95629: This will never happen for a few reasons....

1) The actual time of the flight is a small portion of the travel time door to door. It may take you 10 hours door to door to do a 4 hour flight. Cut that down to 1 hour and you've only shaved 30% off your travel time.

2) Cost. People have shown that they'll make more to get less, not pay more to get more. Air travel is headed towards being a bus in the sky rather than the other direction.

3) Noise. People already complain about the super quiet airliners we have today. They'd never let something like this fly, especially with the sonic booms associated.

4) Pollution. Same as noise. This thing is going to dump huge amounts of bad stuff into the upper atmosphere.

5) Time value. When the Concorde was created, the idea was that people who valued their time could save it by spending more on a fast plane ticket. That is rapidly changing today with the ability of people to communicate remotely (video/teleconferencing/email/etc). In addition, planes are getting WiFi. Time in flight is no longer "dead time" to a businessman. He can work there just like he would in the office... he's not losing out on that time as much and therefore the cost isn't worth it.



If it does happen, it'll be a small business jet with a small production run for those without anything else to do with their money. Normal people like you and I will never benefit from something like this.

I wouldn't worry about it. It will never be a people mover. It will be used to push warheads around the globe in record time.

dericwater: what a beautiful wonderful world it would be.

Yes, blowing dwindling energy on ferrying around rich white people for thrill rides. That's what makes a wonderful world for you?

emersonbiggins: czei: "After about 300 seconds, the test craft is supposed to break up and fall into the ocean."

Um.

"Flight 43 now arriving at Oahu...Midway...Guam...Palau...Manila..."

She's starting to shake.
She's starting to "shimmy"....
She's starting to... to...
"Shudder", Ted?
She's starting to SHUDDER!

/well at least she's not starting to "break up"

Space Elevators, yo!

More fun as well.

EatHam: You won't make it through security in 46 minutes.

Came for this and not really looking forward to the hypersonic patdown by the shortbus security.