3 ms·

Flights in the 8 hour range, sure. But Air Canada's ~15 hour Vancouver-Australia flights are notorious for never having any upgrade space available. I'm guess

Flights in the 8 hour range, sure. But Air Canada's ~15 hour Vancouver-Australia flights are notorious for never having any upgrade space available. I'm guessing that new supersonic jets will be taking the (formerly) 16 hour routes first.

ghaff 9y ago
YMMV, I guess. I can get upgrades using miles pretty routinely from US East Coast to Asia. The other challenge with those sorts of routes though is that you also need a lot more range than the Concorde had. Its range was around 3500 to 4500 miles depending on various factors.
- melling 9y ago
  There have been a number of studies on the viability of commercial supersonic flight. https://niskanencenter.org/blog/supersonic-overland/ https://niskanencenter.org/blog/supersonic-overland/ While your anecdotal experience may have formed your opinion, others have taken a deeper look into the problem. [Update] You should read the section on economic myths: http://www.supersonicmyths.com/#supersonic-myths http://www.supersonicmyths.com/#supersonic-myths “Everyone stands to benefit from supersonic transport. Nonetheless, early technological adoption among a luxury or business class of consumers is a recurrent phenomenon in the spread of innovation. As Everett M. Rogers showed in his seminal work, Diffusion of Innovation, early adopters are often willing to pay a high initial price for a new product due to greater resources and the pursuit of social status. From there, firms reinvest profits in product design and use the benefits of volume and scale to introduce subsequent product versions with more and more mass market appeal. This is how cell phones went from a luxury used by Wall Street's Gordon Gecko to being in the pockets of poor farmers in Africa. It's also the strategy Tesla Motors is using to mainstream affordable electric vehicles.”
  - ghaff 9y ago
    Actually, supersonic business jets (which is what the research in that link is focused on) seem like an entirely plausible market. It's a market that already pays a huge premium for convenience. That's a big difference from viability as a commercial passenger jet in a market where so many people buy on price. Not impossible. But the economics seem very challenging.
- cperciva 9y ago
  you also need a lot more range If you can fly suborbital, range becomes much less of a factor, since you can avoid most of the atmosphere.

ghaff 9y ago

YMMV, I guess. I can get upgrades using miles pretty routinely from US East Coast to Asia. The other challenge with those sorts of routes though is that you also need a lot more range than the Concorde had. Its range was around 3500 to 4500 miles depending on various factors.

melling 9y ago
There have been a number of studies on the viability of commercial supersonic flight. https://niskanencenter.org/blog/supersonic-overland/ https://niskanencenter.org/blog/supersonic-overland/ While your anecdotal experience may have formed your opinion, others have taken a deeper look into the problem. [Update] You should read the section on economic myths: http://www.supersonicmyths.com/#supersonic-myths http://www.supersonicmyths.com/#supersonic-myths “Everyone stands to benefit from supersonic transport. Nonetheless, early technological adoption among a luxury or business class of consumers is a recurrent phenomenon in the spread of innovation. As Everett M. Rogers showed in his seminal work, Diffusion of Innovation, early adopters are often willing to pay a high initial price for a new product due to greater resources and the pursuit of social status. From there, firms reinvest profits in product design and use the benefits of volume and scale to introduce subsequent product versions with more and more mass market appeal. This is how cell phones went from a luxury used by Wall Street's Gordon Gecko to being in the pockets of poor farmers in Africa. It's also the strategy Tesla Motors is using to mainstream affordable electric vehicles.”
- ghaff 9y ago
  Actually, supersonic business jets (which is what the research in that link is focused on) seem like an entirely plausible market. It's a market that already pays a huge premium for convenience. That's a big difference from viability as a commercial passenger jet in a market where so many people buy on price. Not impossible. But the economics seem very challenging.
cperciva 9y ago
you also need a lot more range If you can fly suborbital, range becomes much less of a factor, since you can avoid most of the atmosphere.