Travel News - Boeing cancels Sonic Cruiser

Breaking on Seattle KOMO TV now. Nothing on the Web yet. "Major Announcement" coming on Friday.

To be replaced by a new plane called "Yellowstone" based on 777. Seats 250+ passengers with highly efficient engines.

http://www.komotv.com/

-alan in seattle

At least they're being honest. I haven't read one word about the doubledecker A380, which is just as absurd in this climate.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by LLZ:
At least they're being honest. I haven't read one word about the doubledecker A380, which is just as absurd in this climate.</font>

Actually, the A380 *could* make sense for those airlines that fly long-distance routes between hubs (LH, Singapore, Quantas, etc.). It has a seat cost 20% below a 747-400.

But unless you can fill it, it is silly (hence no US airline is buying).

As for "Yellowstone", it could be an important weapon for Boeing. The 767 is getting creamed by the A330 (due to the A330's better cargo carrying capacity) and the 757 program is also winding down. Still, not sure how much of a market there is for those kinds of planes.

Now, if Boeing could make a next-gen 737 that was 20% cheaper to fly... They'd make a mint.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by LLZ:
At least they're being honest. I haven't read one word about the doubledecker A380, which is just as absurd in this climate.</font>

In this climate, the Sonic Cruiser is not looking so good. A few years ago when times were good, that thing would probably have been a huge moneymaker for airlines.

I still think something like it will be. We haven't seen hardly any improvements in aircraft speed or range in the last 10-20 years. Eventually we've got to work towards that; if it's still taking me as long to get NYC-SYD in 60 years as it is today, I'm going to be pretty disappointed in us.

d

It doesn't surprise me. UAL was interested in this bird, and UAL ain't gonna be buying any airplanes for a while.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by LLZ:
At least they're being honest. I haven't read one word about the doubledecker A380, which is just as absurd in this climate.</font>

Maybe not in the US as you can see that all who purchased this aircraft are not from the USA. Travel may down in North America but they are booming everwhere else in the world!