Boom - supersonic bizjet

Dimme wrote:

These kind of schemes keep on giving new promises and asking for more money until investors run out of money/get tired and shut them down.

It’s not entirely impossible that supersonic flight may become a thing in the near future. The only thing that is certain is that if no one do anything, it will never happen. It’s like lottery, only much more productive for aviation related investors and companies. Lots of engineering, research and development goes into these things, it’s not a total waste of time and money.

It’s a bit funny though, with wordings like this (from the Aerion site)

A NEW ERA OF SUSTAINABLE SUPERSONIC FLIGHT
With the first new civil supersonic engine in 50 years, Boomless Cruise™ technology to ensure a sonic boom never reaches the ground, and the abilty to run completely on synthetic fuels, AS2 is a revolution.

Obviously, to get any interest whatsoever from investors, the word “sustainable” has to be in important part of it “Sustainable” transportation today comes in one of 3 flavors:

1. Electric
2. Bio-fuel
3. Hydrogen

Electric obviously work, and has done so for several generations in trains. Nothing beats electric when it comes to overall efficiency (which in everyday words translates to cost and less environmental impact). Battery power has become a viable alternative during the last 10 years. I’m already on my second electric car, and the nearest ferry has been electric for a few years already. Batteries are still too heavy for longer flights and larger airplanes.

Bio-fuel is more complicated politically. It also obviously works, and works using the same infrastructure and engines as fossil fuels. But the concept of using biological matter for fuel instead of food, and/or using unprecedented areas of new land, is not sustainable in the eyes of the public.

Using hydrogen has been around for many years as an experimental alternative, but has never really made it as a viable alternative. The reason being cost and complexity with production, transportation and storage. For short range aicraft, it could actually work, because liquid hydrogen has an energy content per mass like nothing else, only surpassed by nuclear. More than 3 x that of Jet fuel. The energy density per volume is not high though, and this will limit the amount of fuel one can carry in an airplane. The cost related to complications of production, transportation and storage will not simply go away though.

Extracting carbon from the air and making fuel out of it, is nothing but a fairy tale. Doable, yes, but there is no way to do it without using much more energy than you ever will get out again. By a factor 100 – 1000 at least. Plants do this, and has done so for ever. Billions of years of evolution, and the efficiency of producing plant matter from sun rays + water + CO2 is less than 1%. Then, the raw material also has to be refined, stored, transported.

IMO, hydrogen could find some uses perhaps within some niches, but in the overall scheme of things, nothing beats electricity. It’s super easy and cheap to produce in massive amounts, occupying no land to speak of (think nuclear). Super easy to transport and distribute. For low power applications, storage is compact, cheap, safe, simple. Works well for short range ships. Perfect for cars. The only thing it is not good at at the moment, is in fact as power for long distance ships and long distance airplanes. The point is that there is no other alternative either, except perhaps hydrogen. But then, hydrogen is only a (super complicated) energy transportation and storage system for (clean, compact) electric power made in nuclear plants. It will be super expensive compared with battery power. I’m talking cooled liquid hydrogen. It’s the only form of hydrogen that has any chance of being used in an aircraft.

The only viable, and “sustainable”, power for these supersonic planes is battery power and/or liquid hydrogen. I think everyone involved knows that. As such, it will be decades before we will see any commercial flights, if ever. But still, very far from impossible within the next 10-30 years. Well worth keeping some activity going for investors and aviation companies.