Supersonic Airliners !

 The Boeing 707 was the first of the big jets that brought seat prices crashing down, and then we were told the next big thing would be supersonic speed.  The world airplane makers went into a frenzy doing costings and creating design, but then the Americans walked away from the concept.

Boeing decided it was possible, but that it would never turn a profit.  The British and the French decided to combine their efforts - and that brought us Concorde.  A remarkable plane that could cross the Atlantic Ocean in 3.5 hours, flying at 2124 kph - and carrying just 128 passengers.

No other airlines but the British and French national carriers bought this aircraft and in all its years it never turned a profit.  It was military technology and it flew successfully until a scrap of junk on the runway pierced its fuel tank and killed all aboard.

Now the plane makers are in a new frenzy with plans to build a new airliner capable of supersonic speed.  To bring an economic return it will need to use military technology that makes this possible.  It will need to be bigger than Concode and carry many more passengers and it will encounter both noise problems and damage into the ozone layer.

It is likely that it will be speed restricted over inhabited land, and it will need to compete with bigger, slower competitors who pack in more seats and offer substantially lower prices.   The Concorde era attracted passengers prepared to pay extra for the experience of flying faster than sound, but that attracted international personalities rather than the tourist trade.

If this aircraft eventuates it will be reserved for a small fraction of the travelling public.It is likely to be taken up by a small number of specialist airlines and the main attraction of air travel will be seat prices. It will also be a target for terrorist activity because of the pubicity it attracts.

The introduction of a supersonic airliner comes at a bad time for planet Earth.  We are desperately trying to decrease global warming and aircraft flying around the fringe of the planet leave vapour trails that are clearly visible from the ground.  It is highly likely that some countries may refuse landing rights to aircraft that accentuate that problem.

We have just experiuenced a pandemic that spread economic chaos across ther world and it was air travel that introduced the pathogen to world audiences.  What is possible in our ever developing world of technology is not always what is desireable and we thought that supersonic speed was out of the picture when Concorde withdrew.

Faster air travel will put a cost premium on the travel industry.  We need to decide if that is what we want before newer, faster aircraft decide the iassue for us !