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I am not sure if you travel cross continent a lot. I live in India and for me to travel to the US for work takes 24 hours of continuous travel over multiple fli

I am not sure if you travel cross continent a lot. I live in India and for me to travel to the US for work takes 24 hours of continuous travel over multiple flights. If I can cut it down to 12 hrs, that would be a game changer for me.

runako 4y ago
This is a classic case of "supersonic is not the answer." Depending on the city pair, this is a ~15h nonstop on a commercial flight today. If an airline started serving your city pair, you would immediately save 9 hours. Also keep in mind that supersonic won't help beyond the coasts due to noise/overflight rules that would require flights to slow down over the continents anyway.
- kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  One example of this is Los Angeles-Delhi. Probably possible with existing planes but would require cargo or passenger limits, which would make the route not profitable. No American airline is interested, given the connections available elsewhere, and Air India's (they've expressed interest in this pair before) habit of running routes at big losses will probably start to reduce now that they're privately owned. Airlines are perfectly happy to add more hops to your trip. If there was a supersonic LAX-Singapore (I doubt India would allow supersonic planes), at least the longest leg of the trip is mostly over ocean, supersonic, and the Singapore-DEL flight is just a normal one.
  - runako 4y ago
    Looks like United was running flights from SFO nonstop to Delhi until Russia closed their airspace to US flights. Looking at the list of longest nonstops, a hypothetical LA-Delhi, assuming usage of Russian airspace, flight would fit within the range of a couple of aircraft. The JFK-Singapore direct would still be hundreds of km longer.
  - smachiz 4y ago
    LAX-SIN is still more than 2x the best projected range of this plane.... Flying supersonic really guzzles gas, you're carrying gas to carry gas. Maybe if Boom added mid air refueling... but they'd have to slow down for an hour to do it.
- rishav_sharan 4y ago
  But Supersonic is indeed AN answer. Delhi-Dubai takes 4 hrs. and if Dubai to NY could be done in 4 hours, I would very much prefer to buy that ticket - even if the fare prices are twice that of normal business class. Dubai-NY is a crowded route and there are plenty of very rich professionals who can take it on a regular basis. And even for personal flights - considering that I have to travel only once a year between India and the US, I would very much welcome this option. The current 24 hour long journey is just too brutal, and often time constraints mean that I can't break the journey into small hops over 3-4 days. And I shudder taking my family with me on such trips, given how much of a stress it causes.
  - runako 4y ago
    Today's state of the art is what? a 2-hour flight from Delhi to Mumbai, then a 16-hour nonstop from Mumbai to Newark? 18 hours in the air. Versus a hypothetical 4 hour Delha-Dubai then 5 hour Dubai-NY for 9 hours total in the air. So $1,100 for today vs $7,000 for supersonic (using business class fares as a proxy) to save 9 hours of flight time. My assertion is that there's relatively few people on any given route who have enough money and fly that route enough to make this a viable niche outside of a very limited set of routes. > I shudder taking my family with me on such trips I hear you on that! But also the notion of spending $7k for each of us is somehow worse.
    - zachthewf 4y ago
      As you say though, the cost is all the difference. Is business class the correct proxy?
      - runako 4y ago
        Per Boom's website, they are targeting price points that would let businesses economically sell seats at normal business class fares. However, knowing airlines, I would be surprised if they sold tickets for less than (say) 1.5x the highest subsonic fare for the route. Using the example above, that would put supersonic flights in the range of 10x economy, which feels about right for airline pricing. (At least until there are tons of supersonic flights to push down prices.)

runako 4y ago

This is a classic case of "supersonic is not the answer." Depending on the city pair, this is a ~15h nonstop on a commercial flight today. If an airline started serving your city pair, you would immediately save 9 hours. Also keep in mind that supersonic won't help beyond the coasts due to noise/overflight rules that would require flights to slow down over the continents anyway.

kylehotchkiss 4y ago
One example of this is Los Angeles-Delhi. Probably possible with existing planes but would require cargo or passenger limits, which would make the route not profitable. No American airline is interested, given the connections available elsewhere, and Air India's (they've expressed interest in this pair before) habit of running routes at big losses will probably start to reduce now that they're privately owned. Airlines are perfectly happy to add more hops to your trip. If there was a supersonic LAX-Singapore (I doubt India would allow supersonic planes), at least the longest leg of the trip is mostly over ocean, supersonic, and the Singapore-DEL flight is just a normal one.
- runako 4y ago
  Looks like United was running flights from SFO nonstop to Delhi until Russia closed their airspace to US flights. Looking at the list of longest nonstops, a hypothetical LA-Delhi, assuming usage of Russian airspace, flight would fit within the range of a couple of aircraft. The JFK-Singapore direct would still be hundreds of km longer.
- smachiz 4y ago
  LAX-SIN is still more than 2x the best projected range of this plane.... Flying supersonic really guzzles gas, you're carrying gas to carry gas. Maybe if Boom added mid air refueling... but they'd have to slow down for an hour to do it.
rishav_sharan 4y ago
But Supersonic is indeed AN answer. Delhi-Dubai takes 4 hrs. and if Dubai to NY could be done in 4 hours, I would very much prefer to buy that ticket - even if the fare prices are twice that of normal business class. Dubai-NY is a crowded route and there are plenty of very rich professionals who can take it on a regular basis. And even for personal flights - considering that I have to travel only once a year between India and the US, I would very much welcome this option. The current 24 hour long journey is just too brutal, and often time constraints mean that I can't break the journey into small hops over 3-4 days. And I shudder taking my family with me on such trips, given how much of a stress it causes.
- runako 4y ago
  Today's state of the art is what? a 2-hour flight from Delhi to Mumbai, then a 16-hour nonstop from Mumbai to Newark? 18 hours in the air. Versus a hypothetical 4 hour Delha-Dubai then 5 hour Dubai-NY for 9 hours total in the air. So $1,100 for today vs $7,000 for supersonic (using business class fares as a proxy) to save 9 hours of flight time. My assertion is that there's relatively few people on any given route who have enough money and fly that route enough to make this a viable niche outside of a very limited set of routes. > I shudder taking my family with me on such trips I hear you on that! But also the notion of spending $7k for each of us is somehow worse.
  - zachthewf 4y ago
    As you say though, the cost is all the difference. Is business class the correct proxy?
    - runako 4y ago
      Per Boom's website, they are targeting price points that would let businesses economically sell seats at normal business class fares. However, knowing airlines, I would be surprised if they sold tickets for less than (say) 1.5x the highest subsonic fare for the route. Using the example above, that would put supersonic flights in the range of 10x economy, which feels about right for airline pricing. (At least until there are tons of supersonic flights to push down prices.)