Right, you start with the billionaires’ segment and maybe never make it to the mass public just due to what the market will bear, but at least you get that share who are more likely willing to pay what it costs.
I do seriously wonder about the idea of low-boom supersonics ever getting past the super-premium bizjet crowd.
Mostly because the speeds being discussed, Mach 1.5-ish, are barely double the current cruise speeds of jetliners. And considering the total air+airport journey duration from being dropped off curbside to being picked up curbside, the cruise segment of even a half-continent subsonic flight is barely 50% of the total. The shorter range flights that an RJ-sized supersonic could manage have even less favorable cruise fractions. Cutting half the cruise time off a journey that’s only 30% cruise amounts to a 15% time savings. In exchange for 50 or 100% higher costs? Will it sell? To some people? Yes. To Everyman? Probably not.
The Boeing Sonic Cruiser - Wikipedia never got beyond the silly picture stage because the airlines (Boeing’s customers) immediately grasped that for most its flight time it would be in follow-the-leader mode behind a line of jets of normal speed. A Ferrari is of no benefit on an interstate with semi-trucks filling every lane. OTOH …
At a time or place when there are few to no trucks, a Ferrari can be let loose to haul ass. Point to point travel between otherwise small airports is exactly that use case. And is one where even current bizjets excel over their airliner counterparts due to lack of congestion far more than extra speed. Adding extra speed to a bizjet is almost pure gain in actual operation. Adding speed to an e.g. 737-equivalent is almost no gain in actual operation. At least until the supersonics are most of the traffic and the old slow jets are relegated to a separate slow lane that would have to be created for them.
Will supersonic jets necessarily be more expensive to fly per mile that regular ones?
Yes. It takes more energy to go faster so fuel costs at least will be higher. It isn’t a linear function, for lower speed power required goes as the cube of airspeed. Supersonic is even worse.
As said, fuel burn per mile will be higher. But wait, there’s more!
Which also means that for any given airplane size and stage length a supersonic version will have to devote more carrying capacity to fuel with means less capacity for payload. So e.g. something the size & weight of a current RJ that carries 90 people will only have carrying capacity for 45 people while burning 150-200% as much fuel to get there. Meaning fuel burn per person is 300-400% of the conventional RJ. Since fuel is a big component of operating cost, and hence the minimum break-even fares, there must be a significant price premium.
Now if you have an airplane that size but can only put 45 seats in it, they can be large & widely spaced seats. IOW typical US domestic first class from nose to tail. What they can’t be is those big lie flat modules used in long haul first class because those in turn are quite heavy, as heavy as the passengers that don’t fit into the space they take up.
So these RJ-sized supersonics will be an all first class operation. At all first class prices. Various “boutique” carriers have sprung up and then died trying to make that market niche work with subsonics. Just not quite enough concentrated wealth to work across more than a handful of city pairs. Whether the extra speed brings enough customers out of the woodwork remains to be seen.
Been flying without correct license for SEVENTEEN years. Must have been a good flyer though. Passed all the training and check rides.
Interesting.
A few years ago (2010? 2015?) the FAA altered their demands on US airlines’ training departments to ensure a training department employee carefully examined every license and medical certificate before every training event to ensure it looked real and had all the right stuff printed on it. And matched the person presenting it. Which meant your papers got looked at at least annually and sometimes more like every 6 months.
IIRC there was also some sort of one-time audit between airline records and FAA records to ensure anyone claiming to have qualification X really did have it as of that time. Same for anyone hired thereafter.
They never offered a rationale for this change that I recall. But it seemed to come out of nowhere, and I suspect it was something similar to this that was their wakeup call. Before that, your documents rarely got looked at after you were hired.
Back in the 1970s, forging any pre-printed form document was hard for an average citizen. You’d need a cooperative accomplice who worked at, or better yet owned, a printing business. With the advent of home copiers, scanners, laser printers, desktop publishing apps, etc. all that formerly hard work got trivial.
No doubt because of Thomas Salme who was busted in 2010 for being a non-pilot pilot.
It says they discovered the “anomaly” the same year the pilot retired. That sounds like a pretty good deal for the airline. They got 17 years of productive work from this guy, and now have a reason to cancel any pension or benefits they might still owe him.
When I was college age, back in the '80s, I used to enjoy going to airshows. I was lucky enough to be at Abbotsford the same year as the World’s Fair in Vancouver, and they had a great lineup that year. The Snowbirds were there, of course, along with the Blue Angels, and teams from the air forces of France, Italy, and Brazil.
One team I never saw, though, were the RAF Red Arrows. They don’t come to the U.S. all that often. I found out that they are here this year, and will be at an airshow in southern Maine, about 100 miles from me. I can’t decide if I should go. I got out of the airshow habit ages ago; they’re hot, loud, and crowded. On the other hand, this does feel like kind of a bucket list item for me. What do y’all think; worth the trouble or not?
(If it matters, I just saw an article that they’ll be using 7 planes (instead of the usual 9) at most of their shows to extend the life of their planes until replacements can be acquired.)
100 miles for a bucket list item? I’ve driven 100 miles for lunch.
Imma thinking it was he “retired” once it came to light & wouldn’t have otherwise retired right then & there, much like a cop who retires a day before they’re arrested for something (as a way to preserve their pension) or a CEO who resigns, effective immediately to ‘spend more time with their family’ (in lieu of being fired)
Air Canada has been trying to split hairs on this saying on the one hand, it shouldn’t have happened, on the other hand safety was never compromised because the guy passed all training and checkrides. I don’t envy their PR rep having to do this tap dance.
Wouldn‘t it be more reliable (and cheaper) for authorities issuing licenses and doctors issuing medical certificates to upload these datasets to a central database, and base hiring/flying decisions on a lookup from that database instead on documents submitted by the pilot in question? (The sole remaining risk would be impersonation). Like police being able to query someone‘s driving licence record.
Anyone who ‘works’ around kids needs a periodic child abuse background check. I had to do it when I volunteer coached kid sports & have to do it as as a firefighter (despite the fact I should never be alone with a kid in that role). Now I don’t have any problem passing the checks but I have a huge problem with the process. I submit for my background check, get the results & then give it to the youth sports league / FD, etc. If someone has something in their background that would disqualify them what is stopping them from just turning in a doctored document that shows that they passed the background check? Shouldn’t the requesting agency get that from the source rather than from the involved party who potentially has a reason to lie about it. Does the cop take your word at the side of your car that you’re not wanted or does he go back to his car & independently check?
Nowadays? Yes; real time query of an online database would be easy enough. In 1980? No.
I don’t have the details on current internal practices between the airlines and FAA. When I attended my last training event before retirement some aspects of it had to be entered directly by airline people into an FAA website. I sat there and watched them do it for my records. The implication is that my licensing details were probably right there for the looking.
I saw the Red Arrows at Transpo '72 at Dulles Airport when I was 16, and somewhere in the attic I may still have the 8mm film I shot of them.
Thanks for letting me know about the Great State of Maine Airshow. I’m on the North Shore of Boston, about 130 miles away, and if I can persuade the wife, we may go, too.
For years I went to every airshow I could get to. I’ve probably been to 20 or 30, and I was a member of the International Council of Airshows, and attended a few of their conventions. I was friends with Patty Wagstaff, and took a flight in a four-plane aerobatic team. I’ve also flown in two different Stearman biplanes.
Is Patty Wagstaff still alive? I vaguely remember my dad telling me about a time he took a C-141 to an airshow. He said they took some of the other show pilots on board for when they did their flight display, and I think Wagstaff was one of them.
My only time in an open cockpit biplane was at the Washington State airshow in Everett. I was in college and got some letterhead stationery from our campus radio station, and requested press credentials for the airshow. I went on media day and got a ride around the pattern in a Travel Air that had been equipped for skywriting. I think that plane might be hanging in the Udvar-Hazy Center now, but I’m not sure.
Here’s a fresh Dope topic that might be of interest to this audience:
I haven’t fiddled with it … yet.
As to airshows: Been a long time since I’ve been to one, or to a fly-in. Too long. My late wife was non-flying USAF and interested in airplanes. But it’s been a dozen-plus years now since she was last healthy enough to want to spend a day wandering around an airport in the sun. Subsequent ex-wives and ex-GFs weren’t into airplanes.
Airshows are not rare around here. The truly amazing SUN 'n FUN Aerospace Expo - Lakeland, FL is about 200 miles one way from me. But it’s a 6-day shindig, so the driving isn’t too disproportionate. If one could withstand 6 days of concentrated GA. Or more like if one’s SO could.
My current GF worked for the airlines in a non-flying role and is a bit of a plane nut. I think airshows are part of my near future. Yaay!
I’ve been to Sun 'n Fun twice and I highly recommend it. However, I think flying in and out in a small plane was one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever done in my life. Once on the ground, a wonderful experience. Be sure to stay hydrated.