Here’s the latest entry. They seem to have persuaded Virgin into buying ten planes.
They don’t seem to be addressing boom, no mention of transcontinental flight. I have a lot of trouble believing they can do trans-Pacific non-stop. But I’d like to find out more.
I’m highly dubious, but I certainly hope it works.
And, um, is “Boom” about the worst name possible for a company building an airliner? I suppose “Crash and Burn” would be worse, but not by much.
+1
“They don’t seem to be addressing boom,…”
Sure they are. They’re embracing it. Didn’t you see it in big letters on the tail?
If they get Sydney -> LA going I’ll buy at least one ticket. Half the time for twice the price seems fair.
According to the article its only an option to buy.
Well, obviously. Branson isn’t stupid.
Not only a replacement for the Concorde but a scale model of it – sort of.
I’m dubious that anything that teensy and sleek is going to be able to carry a fuel load adequate to get it across the Pacific at Mach 2.2 even if it flies at 85,000 feet like the Blackbird rather than a mere 60,000 like this thing is supposed to do. The non-passenger cabin portions of the hull and the razor-thin wings don’t look voluminous enough to be even in the right order of magnitude for such a task.
Also, if you’re planning to build a pioneering aircraft based on “proven” technology, is it really wise to take on the up-front credibility hit of immediately allying yourself with a man whose mouth has been signing checks he can’t cover for over a decade?
Good point about range.
They don’t seem to be planning transoceanic flights, but if they were, would they have to be nonstop? How about refueling at Honolulu and … Guam? *shrug* I have no idea what are used for hubs out there.
In Raiders, what were the stops on the flight to Nepal?
According to a piece in Aviation Daily today (can’t link), they need to stop for fuel to get across the Pacific.
In Raiders, the stops were at Honolulu and Manila.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TY5Fp6O5iM
If those hops are too long for the Boom bird, would circling the Pacific through Seattle-Anchorage-Tokyo work? If you’re trying for Sydney, add Taipei, Hong Kong, or Manila?
Don’t the Japanese have a big airport built on an artificial island on the Pacific coast southwest of Tokyo? Make that your hub, and you’ll have access to East Asia.
What’s Canadian policy re: Sonic Boom? Don’t most Asian flights from the US east coast go great circle over the sparsely populated Northern Territories? You’d probably go sub-sonic over Alaska anyway if your way-point is Anchorage.
I don’t know.