Supersonic airlines may be coming back

By Justin Bachman

Bloomberg—Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, is forming an airline of sorts, one that pledges to transport people anywhere on Earth in minutes by launching them on a rocket at speeds up to 17,000 mph.

This audacious, hypersonic goal currently lies somewhere between science fiction and sound physics, although nothing in SpaceX’s rudimentary plans appears to be technically impossible.

The significantly slower supersonic jet travel first popularized by the Concorde may return, sharply reducing flying times on many routes popular with business travelers. Several companies are working to develop new supersonic aircraft technologies, as is NASA. But it will still take you a few hours to get to New York from Paris.

The bigger hurdle for both hypersonic and supersonic may well be the financial underpinnings of these ventures — determining how to make the technology profitable and not just the tiniest of niche transport options for the 1 percent.

The challenges “won’t be around whether it’s technologically feasible, it will be around what the economics will need to be to make it a reasonable endeavor,” said Luigi Peluso, a managing director in the aerospace, defense, and airlines practice at consulting firm AlixPartners LLP.

Hypersonic speed would obviously revolutionize long-haul air travel, but could anyone but billionaires afford to fly above the atmosphere, zipping anywhere on the planet like an intercontinental ballistic missile with free peanuts? Musk says yes — for about the price of a full-fare economy ticket today. That’s certainly aspirational, said Peluso, and only possible after the technology is mature. SpaceX declined to comment beyond Elon Musk’s announcement of his plans last week.

“Hypersonic is going to be pretty incredible and I think that’s something that everybody is working for,” said Vik Kachoria, chief executive of Spike Aerospace Inc., a Boston startup that’s developing a supersonic business jet. Spike plans to fly its first SX-1.2 demonstrator aircraft this week, albeit at subsonic speeds. Supersonic test flights are set for 2019, with customer deliveries in 2023.

“A pretty major difference between supersonic flight and suborbital transportation is that the former can be done without major engineering leaps”