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Their FAQ section^0 says this: > Overture flights will focus on 500+ primarily transoceanic routes that benefit from supersonic speeds—such as New York to Lond

Their FAQ section^0 says this: > Overture flights will focus on 500+ primarily transoceanic routes that benefit from supersonic speeds—such as New York to London or San Francisco to Tokyo. Overture won't generate a sonic boom over land cruising at subsonic speeds. Its passengers won't even notice breaking through the "sound barrier," which will be inaudible and uneventful. So I guess they haven't really solved physics. edit: in an economic way. [0]: https://boomsupersonic.com/contact#faq-section https://boomsupersonic.com/contact#faq-section

JacobDotVI 6y ago
there is also ongoing research into making the boom less audible & turbulent over land, which would enable cross-country flights: >Graves explains that SonicBAT is an unusual test in that it uses a typical military aircraft with its loud sonic boom to help engineers better understand the sounds from future quiet supersonic aircraft >"We're hoping we can eventually lower sonic booms to a low rumble," he said. "The goal is to eventually accommodate jets that can fly from New York to Los Angeles in two hours." https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-supersonic-technology-designed-to-reduce-sonic-booms https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-supersonic-technology-desig... I'd hope that Boom is also working on such an approach
- lumost 6y ago
  WRT to the US. I'd be curious if anyone has done a route analysis on trans-continental flights to minimize overheard booms. Once you're 200 miles from the coasts there is a lot of open space to fly through.
  - qppo 6y ago
    I think you'd be hard pressed to find a path where the boom cone's carpet doesn't pass over a moderately populated area and can be navigated by the aircraft at supersonic speeds. The US is not sparse east of the Missippi, which is more like 750 miles from the coast.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Once you're 200 miles from the coasts there is a lot of open space to fly through. That's really only true west of about a North-South line through the eastern edge of the Texas panhandle. From there east, there's still some open space (not a lot once you hit the Mississippi River), but you'd have to dodge around to make path not going over population concentrations.
    - ed25519FUUU 6y ago
      I think that’s why they specifically call out O’hare to London, and SF to Tokyo, routes that take them over the ocean.
Robotbeat 6y ago
NASA has solved physics, though: https://www.nasa.gov/X59 https://www.nasa.gov/X59 The Low-boom Flight Demonstration mission has two goals: 1) design and build a piloted, large-scale supersonic X-plane with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom to that of a gentle thump; and 2) fly the X-plane over select U.S. communities to gather data on human responses to the low-boom flights and deliver that data set to U.S. and international regulators. Using this data, new sound-based rules regarding supersonic flight over land can be written and adopted, which would open the doors to new commercial cargo and passenger markets to provide faster-than-sound air travel.
- uranium 6y ago
  NASA has a goal to solve physics; we'll see how they do.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > NASA has solved physics, though: "NASA has a project to test whether the physics can be adequately finessed" would be more accurate description of what is on that page than "NASA has solved the physics".
nopzor 6y ago
that's an interestingly worded statement. in concorde, the passengers didn't even notice breaking through the sound barrier either. regarding sonic booms over land, their plan iirc is to reduce the noise level to the point where they can lobby to change legislation.

JacobDotVI 6y ago

there is also ongoing research into making the boom less audible & turbulent over land, which would enable cross-country flights: >Graves explains that SonicBAT is an unusual test in that it uses a typical military aircraft with its loud sonic boom to help engineers better understand the sounds from future quiet supersonic aircraft >"We're hoping we can eventually lower sonic booms to a low rumble," he said. "The goal is to eventually accommodate jets that can fly from New York to Los Angeles in two hours." https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-supersonic-technology-designed-to-reduce-sonic-booms https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-supersonic-technology-desig... I'd hope that Boom is also working on such an approach

lumost 6y ago
WRT to the US. I'd be curious if anyone has done a route analysis on trans-continental flights to minimize overheard booms. Once you're 200 miles from the coasts there is a lot of open space to fly through.
- qppo 6y ago
  I think you'd be hard pressed to find a path where the boom cone's carpet doesn't pass over a moderately populated area and can be navigated by the aircraft at supersonic speeds. The US is not sparse east of the Missippi, which is more like 750 miles from the coast.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Once you're 200 miles from the coasts there is a lot of open space to fly through. That's really only true west of about a North-South line through the eastern edge of the Texas panhandle. From there east, there's still some open space (not a lot once you hit the Mississippi River), but you'd have to dodge around to make path not going over population concentrations.
  - ed25519FUUU 6y ago
    I think that’s why they specifically call out O’hare to London, and SF to Tokyo, routes that take them over the ocean.

Robotbeat 6y ago

NASA has solved physics, though: https://www.nasa.gov/X59 https://www.nasa.gov/X59 The Low-boom Flight Demonstration mission has two goals: 1) design and build a piloted, large-scale supersonic X-plane with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom to that of a gentle thump; and 2) fly the X-plane over select U.S. communities to gather data on human responses to the low-boom flights and deliver that data set to U.S. and international regulators. Using this data, new sound-based rules regarding supersonic flight over land can be written and adopted, which would open the doors to new commercial cargo and passenger markets to provide faster-than-sound air travel.

uranium 6y ago
NASA has a goal to solve physics; we'll see how they do.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> NASA has solved physics, though: "NASA has a project to test whether the physics can be adequately finessed" would be more accurate description of what is on that page than "NASA has solved the physics".

nopzor 6y ago

that's an interestingly worded statement. in concorde, the passengers didn't even notice breaking through the sound barrier either. regarding sonic booms over land, their plan iirc is to reduce the noise level to the point where they can lobby to change legislation.