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Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today

space.com

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Re: Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today

#11

Post by short_sells_poo »

nom wrote: post #5
kachapopopow wrote: post #3

[flagged]

A 2-3 hour reduction in flight time is appealing for approximately everyone who needs to fly.

This. If time didn't matter, people would use trains instead of short distance flights. And many do! Many European cities that are a 2 hour flight apart also have an ~8-9 hour train connection, which is much less hassle and stress than the flight, but people who have to travel a lot will care about the time savings of even a few hours because it adds up over time.

Lots of people have to regularly travel between Europe and US, and if they can save 50% of the travel time, it ends up being a significant amount of time. I believe the market for these flights aren't families going on a holiday, rather people who have to travel on business 3-4 times a month.

Re: Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today

#16

Post by Peanuts99 »

bongodongobob wrote: post #7
kachapopopow wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Have you done an 8 hour flight in economy? It's absolutely miserable. Noise pollution over the Atlantic affects literally noone.

It likely has an affect on whales and other marine animals as shown by a number of studies previously.

Re: Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today

#18

Post by kachapopopow »

Peanuts99 wrote: post #16
bongodongobob wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you done an 8 hour flight in economy? It's absolutely miserable. Noise pollution over the Atlantic affects literally noone.

It likely has an affect on whales and other marine animals as shown by a number of studies previously.

I've completely forgot about this! It also affects other airplane systems (mostly pito tubes) which can cause the autopilot to disconnect or master caution to go off which have been known to lead to confusion and major incidents in the past.

Re: Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today

#19

Post by ipdashc »

kachapopopow wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Even if the noise pollution can be solved (or, as others have said, just run it only over the ocean), I don't see how this thing wouldn't pump out an immense amount of CO2. It's definitely cool and would make flying nicer, but in an era where we're trying to decarbonize, get sustainable aviation fuel going, optimize flight paths to avoid contrail warming, etc... I can't lie, there is a big part of me that hopes it doesn't work out.

Re: Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today

#20

Post by Earw0rm »

short_sells_poo wrote: post #11
nom wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 2-3 hour reduction in flight time is appealing for approximately everyone who needs to fly.

This. If time didn't matter, people would use trains instead of short distance flights. And many do! Many European cities that are a 2 hour flight apart also have an ~8-9 hour train connection, which is much less hassle and stress than the flight, but people who have to travel a lot will care about the time savings of even a few hours because it adds up over time. Lots of people have to regularly travel between Europ…

"have to" being, to some extent, a function of these flights being priced at a heavy discount relative to their environmental impact.
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