Concorde went bust: United plans to buy 50 Boom supersonic jets- have them in the air by 2029

By Ika Elstone

September 3rd, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Prepare Your Luggage: Supersonic Commercial Flights Are Coming Back

After 20 years, United Airlines announced they would purchase 50 Boom Overture supersonic jets; their objective is to provide Supersonic flights by 2029.

I was a magnificent jet plane – changed the world travel market. A disastrous crash in France brought an end to the Concorde.

Concorde shut down the company in 2003 due to financial problems. Costs of supersonic flights were high,  high fuel consumption and heavy maintenance costs were reflected in ticket prices that hit the roof.

United Airlines, the airline behind the plans is going to have to manage the problems  Concorde had with modern solutions. Jet noise was another problem that banned supersonic aeroplanes. Concorde’s plane makes an overland sonic boom at 105 decibels. That kind of noise is not allowed to fly over land.

What Is the Reason for Supersonic Flights Relaunch?

With modern life needs and high demands for business travelling supersonic flights would be a great addition. The high speed of the supersonic Boom aeroplanes halves the time of travel. For example, if passengers wants to fly from London to Las Vegas, it would take in fastest terms 10 hours and 40 minutes for a distance of 5,222 miles (8,403 km) with Finnair. If United Airlines could provide a supersonic flight, a trip from London Heathrow to the Las Vegas McCarran airport would take about 5 hours and 20 minutes which is a significant difference. Almost 11 hours that plane ride is a whole day, and travellers would need one extra day to spend on a trip.

But, if a supersonic flight lasts around 5 hours, passengers could travel from London to Las Vegas and have an almost whole first day of the trip to spend sightseeing and playing games in a casino. We will need to wait some time to have breakfast in London, and till lunch come to Las Vegas, and play slot machines with cocktails on the side. Until then, we can spend hours on the plane preparing your a-game in Live Casino Roulette to warm you up before landing in Las Vegas. Thousands of people land in Las Vegas every day, and departure, shorter flights would speed up travelling energy and possibly result in higher revenue numbers. Imagine travelling to Las Vegas in just 5 hours. That is the time that you need to travel from London to Paris via road!

Updating Planes

The Boom – longer, faster – will the market accept this latest supersonic jet ?

Firstly, United Airlines needs to solve technical issues in the planes. Noise is the biggest problem that could get solved with some aerodynamic design. NASA has some techniques that could produce optimized air frame shapes that would reduce noise. New aerodynamics design would lower down sonic booms from 105 decibels to 75 decibels. In addition, a new aerodynamics design would allow changes in used materials on the planes. Modern materials are lightweight, and with that, they enable better weight ratios. The lighter weight would eliminate the need for afterburners in take-off moments.

Green Credentials

United Airlines will be a part of the collaborative development of aviation fuels. Their main goal is to establish supplies of sustainable aviation fuel. With the large amounts of fuel propellant that supersonic Boom aeroplanes need, greening with sustainable gas will impact the environment and the whole industry globally.

Just imagine how many hours, and days you could save with twice as short flights. This United Airlines announcement is exciting and will be a great travel possibility in the future.

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1 comment to Concorde went bust: United plans to buy 50 Boom supersonic jets- have them in the air by 2029

  • David Barker

    The thought of a new supersonic passenger aircraft is interesting. How will it overcome the hurdles that faced the Anglo French Concorde and which still remain. Hurdles such as, veey high operating costs, being prohibited from flying at supersonic speeds over land, high passenger ticket prices. The overland speed limitation was initiated by the US when it became clear the Boeing effort to build a competitor would not materialize. Usual US pique and bully attitude as shown in the cancelation of the Avro Arrow and the BAC TSR2.

    Anyway, a few corrections to the published story.

    Concorde was not a company that was shut down. Concorde was a plane build by a joint venture between BAE and Sud Aviation under an international treaty between the UK and France.

    The joint venture was closed down, primarily due to Airbus (the successor to Sud Aviation) withdrawing its maintenance support for the planes. Other reasons in the equation were operating costs, the Paris crash of one of the Air France fleet, and the sub-sonic speed requirement over most land masses.

    The Paris Concorde crash it was determined did not result from any failure of the Concorde itself or its crew, but from it hitting a large piece of metal debris left oh the runway from a previous sub-sonic plane taking off.

    Modern materials might provide higher potential speeds, mach 3 maybe. Above mach 2 aluminum starts to soften through heat generated by air friction. But the need for the afterburners on takeoff may still be needed. Afterburners were needed due to the wing being primarily designed for supersonic speeds. At low speeds the wing provided poor lift properties. This poor lift was overcome on takeoff by sheer power of the engines, and on landing by a very high “angle of attack”. Changes in materials will not necessarily markedly change the lift properties of the wing shape.

    Is there really a large passenger market for air travel when flight times are almost halved but ticket costs are six times sub-sonic ticket costs?