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decimalenough | on: A successful Japanese trial of a ramjet engine designed for Mach‑5 aircraft
There is a lot of money in NYC-LHR, that's why Concorde continued to fly that route and profitably too, once they realized how high they could yank the prices and still fill the plane.

Also, Concorde's maximum range was 4,488 mi, which was calibrated to allow trans-Atlantic but not much more. Trans-Pac was not an option and even Australia to North Asia would be a stretch.

bobthepanda | parent
I think they are agreeing with you re: the range.

There is money in NYC-LHR (it brings BA alone $1B in revenue annually) but the market for supersonic basically vanished. In the 70s when Concorde started flying, it was certainly a step up. However, the market niche basically disappeared when the lie flat seat was developed; for a lot cheaper, you could have a sleep for six hours in a really cushy lie flat, or you could spend a crapton more to be in a much louder, more cramped cabin for only about three hours less. If you were halving a 12-16 hour journey instead, there would still be a market left, but Concorde just didn't have the ability to do so.

mckn1ght | root | parent
You can also essentially work remotely in an airplane now. I haven’t tried videoconferencing, but I easily do all my other software work on trips. So a couple extra hours might even be a benefit: more time with no distractions to wrap up that slide deck, maybe a 1:1 or two, get your free drinks from premium/business class, doze off to a movie, wake up for an early start at your destination.
XorNot | root | parent
12 hours on a plane is 12 hours on a plane. And there's currently no amount of ticket money that can make that shorter.
fragmede | root | parent
Shorter, no, but having a private cabin with a shower, and a lounge with a bartender on the plane, not to mention Starlink, would make those 12 hours a lot more bearable vs 12 in an economy seat.
throwaway2037 | root | parent | next

    > having a private cabin with a shower
AFAIK: Showers are only available to first class customers flying via the major Gulf carriers. I checked Google flights for business class and first class tickets between Tokyo and London. Business is about 5,000 USD and first class is about 10,000 USD. Assuming that we are talking about first class here (to satisfy your shower requirement), what kind of developer is hacking code at 10,000 meters in first class... except... hmm... Mitchell Hashimoto?
mckn1ght | root | parent
Wasn’t Concorde like 20-50% more expensive than a normal first class ticket for the same itinerary?

So any hacker considering a SST flight should also be able to afford the first class cabin.

bobthepanda | root | parent
If it ever actually gets off the ground, Boom Supersonic is allegedly targeting a $5000 business class trip for transatlantic.
stymaar | root | parent
Sure, but it would also make it much more expensive than a supersonic flight…