Friday, October 24, 2008

Note to Obama: Capitalism Works in Aviation


An American firm is on the cusp of re-imagining the supersonic dream and confidently plans to have supersonic commercial aircraft back in the skies as a reality by 2015....The New Concorde: Supersonic jet will get you from New York to London in Three Hours, Daily Mail, 10/23/2008

The original Concorde, heavily subsidized from design to flight and throughout thirty years of operation, lost billions of dollars for its builders and operators. Finally, overwhelmed by its financial problems, the brilliant first SST was retired. Now what? A privately organized and financed American company, Aerion, has taken fifty deposits on a 12-seat, supersonic business jet it will bring to service in four years. It will serve approximately the same crowd the Concorde did, at greatly reduced cost, both financially and environmentally. It will also meet noise standards for modest supersonic flight, as it sheds no supersonic boom at speeds up to Mach 1.15.

Hmmm. Maybe NASA, the vastly subsidized American space agency, should be turned over to Aerion. The Mars mission might be fulfilled in five years instead of twenty.

Luther

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