4 ms·

I wonder about noise concerns. The concorde only reached supersonic flight on the ocean, not on land because of the sonic boom.

rsynnott 9y ago
Presumably they’d only do trans-oceanic flights.
- greglindahl 9y ago
  Their FAQ says: > Boom's airliner is designed to maximize efficiency while producing a “boom” at least 30 times quieter than Concorde's. So I don't think they have that presumption.
- stereo 9y ago
  Dubai or Singapore to Heathrow or CDG are over land and still have plenty of potential.
  - kijin 9y ago
    Trans-Pacific routes could also use supersonic planes, since longer distances mean even more time savings (Tokyo to Los Angeles in 5 hours instead of 10) and there's virtually nobody underneath to complain about the noise.
doh 9y ago
In USA, all supersonic flight over land by civil aircraft has been prohibited by regulation introduced in March 1973. [0] Without changes in the legislation, airlines can only offer supersonic flights over the ocean. [0] https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/apl/noise_emissions/supersonic_aircraft_noise/media/noise_policy_on_supersonics.pdf https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ap...
- SOLAR_FIELDS 9y ago
  Not necessarily a dealbreaker. Concorde did ok with British airways flying out of NY. Assuming the rules don’t change there are plenty of viable routes out of Houston, NY, and SFO.
  - doh 9y ago
    I never said it's a deal breaker, just that it's not possible to fly supersonic over the land. I do hope that the Boom team will be able to deliver a viable service for benefit us all. Would love nothing more than to travel faster.
  - namelost 9y ago
    Concorde was a British-French aircaft, so it was allowed to fly over the UK. If it had been American, it would have been banned instantly. It was horrifically noisy.
    - knz 9y ago
      > It was horrifically noisy. I saw it land/take off a handful of times as a kid. The noise was unlike anything else I've ever experienced - you could hear it many kilometers away and up close (on the airport boundary) you'd feel every internal cavity vibrating when it departed. As a child it was marvellous!
- mikeyouse 9y ago
  Boom (and others) are working to get those rules changed to limit maximum noise rather than maximum speed. If they can figure out how to make Mach 2.0 as quiet as Mach 0.85 to people in the flight path, go for it: http://aviationweek.com/bca/legislation-open-door-us-supersonic-flight http://aviationweek.com/bca/legislation-open-door-us-superso...
  - kobeya 9y ago
    It's pretty much a solved problem for the last two decades. You can use the shape of the wing and fuselage to broaden sound wave, and go supersonic at an angle of attack that sends the brunt of the transition sonic boom above the horizon or at least on a long trajectory to the ground.
melling 9y ago
The look like they’re doing ocean only flights. At 3:15 in the video they show a map with about 500 routes.
tristanj 9y ago
Supersonic flight doesn't have to be as noisy as the Concorde was. Remember, Concorde was designed in the mid 1960s (over 50 years ago) with minimal use of computer modeling. We've had decades of advances in computer modeling and processing power so it's now possible to design planes with much quieter sonic booms. On the order of 100x to 1000x quieter. Here's one plane being developed by Lockheed Martin, "designed to create a sonic boom only 1% as strong as that generated by the Concorde." Though, this plane is smaller than the Concorde so it's boom should naturally be smaller, however the idea still applies to other supersonic planes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAI_Quiet_Supersonic_Transport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAI_Quiet_Supersonic_Transport Lockheed Martin claims their design only generates 60 A-weighted decibels of noise. This is compared to the Concorde’s sound at cruising altitude of about 90 A-weighted decibels. 60 decibels would put it at about the sound of a normal conversation. That would make it quiet and non-intrusive enough for overland flights. http://lockheedmartin.com/us/innovations/072016-webt-supersonic-flight-hush-sonic-boom.html http://lockheedmartin.com/us/innovations/072016-webt-superso...
lostboys67 9y ago
And a lot of the push back was NIH because boing bailed on its SST it would be interesting to find out who bankrolled the anti concord activits. And Boom is a US company :-)

rsynnott 9y ago

Presumably they’d only do trans-oceanic flights.

greglindahl 9y ago
Their FAQ says: > Boom's airliner is designed to maximize efficiency while producing a “boom” at least 30 times quieter than Concorde's. So I don't think they have that presumption.
stereo 9y ago
Dubai or Singapore to Heathrow or CDG are over land and still have plenty of potential.
- kijin 9y ago
  Trans-Pacific routes could also use supersonic planes, since longer distances mean even more time savings (Tokyo to Los Angeles in 5 hours instead of 10) and there's virtually nobody underneath to complain about the noise.

doh 9y ago

In USA, all supersonic flight over land by civil aircraft has been prohibited by regulation introduced in March 1973. [0] Without changes in the legislation, airlines can only offer supersonic flights over the ocean. [0] https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/apl/noise_emissions/supersonic_aircraft_noise/media/noise_policy_on_supersonics.pdf https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ap...

SOLAR_FIELDS 9y ago
Not necessarily a dealbreaker. Concorde did ok with British airways flying out of NY. Assuming the rules don’t change there are plenty of viable routes out of Houston, NY, and SFO.
- doh 9y ago
  I never said it's a deal breaker, just that it's not possible to fly supersonic over the land. I do hope that the Boom team will be able to deliver a viable service for benefit us all. Would love nothing more than to travel faster.
- namelost 9y ago
  Concorde was a British-French aircaft, so it was allowed to fly over the UK. If it had been American, it would have been banned instantly. It was horrifically noisy.
  - knz 9y ago
    > It was horrifically noisy. I saw it land/take off a handful of times as a kid. The noise was unlike anything else I've ever experienced - you could hear it many kilometers away and up close (on the airport boundary) you'd feel every internal cavity vibrating when it departed. As a child it was marvellous!
mikeyouse 9y ago
Boom (and others) are working to get those rules changed to limit maximum noise rather than maximum speed. If they can figure out how to make Mach 2.0 as quiet as Mach 0.85 to people in the flight path, go for it: http://aviationweek.com/bca/legislation-open-door-us-supersonic-flight http://aviationweek.com/bca/legislation-open-door-us-superso...
- kobeya 9y ago
  It's pretty much a solved problem for the last two decades. You can use the shape of the wing and fuselage to broaden sound wave, and go supersonic at an angle of attack that sends the brunt of the transition sonic boom above the horizon or at least on a long trajectory to the ground.

melling 9y ago

The look like they’re doing ocean only flights. At 3:15 in the video they show a map with about 500 routes.

tristanj 9y ago

Supersonic flight doesn't have to be as noisy as the Concorde was. Remember, Concorde was designed in the mid 1960s (over 50 years ago) with minimal use of computer modeling. We've had decades of advances in computer modeling and processing power so it's now possible to design planes with much quieter sonic booms. On the order of 100x to 1000x quieter. Here's one plane being developed by Lockheed Martin, "designed to create a sonic boom only 1% as strong as that generated by the Concorde." Though, this plane is smaller than the Concorde so it's boom should naturally be smaller, however the idea still applies to other supersonic planes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAI_Quiet_Supersonic_Transport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAI_Quiet_Supersonic_Transport Lockheed Martin claims their design only generates 60 A-weighted decibels of noise. This is compared to the Concorde’s sound at cruising altitude of about 90 A-weighted decibels. 60 decibels would put it at about the sound of a normal conversation. That would make it quiet and non-intrusive enough for overland flights. http://lockheedmartin.com/us/innovations/072016-webt-supersonic-flight-hush-sonic-boom.html http://lockheedmartin.com/us/innovations/072016-webt-superso...

lostboys67 9y ago

And a lot of the push back was NIH because boing bailed on its SST it would be interesting to find out who bankrolled the anti concord activits. And Boom is a US company :-)