> Wasn’t TU-144 just a pissing contest entry with retrofitted engines of another aircraft? Pissing contest, maybe, but the Tu-144 was its own aircraft. The ai

> Wasn’t TU-144 just a pissing contest entry with retrofitted engines of another aircraft? Pissing contest, maybe, but the Tu-144 was its own aircraft. The airframe was designed from day one to be exactly what it was, a supersonic airliner (and contrary to popular myth, the design was not simply stolen from the Concorde although maybe the premise was..) I'm not sure if the original Tu-144 engines, the NK-144's, were originally intended for another plane, but as far as I know the only planes they were ever put in were the Tu-144. They were later replaced by RD-36 engines, which were designed for the Tu-144. And let's not forget the Concorde's engines had a military background. They were derived from engines originally meant for the [cancelled] TSR-2. The major problem I see for Boom is social. Environmental and class/economic concerns particularly; see the public backlash against Jeff Bezos' rocket hop for instance. Not to mention, the little experiment we've been running for the past ~2 years with remote work and teleconferencing has probably reduced demand for high speed business travel.