Originally Posted by
mnhusker
Two responses:
First read Davies detailed economic analysis of Supersonic flight and airline needs. It does not work.
Second, BA and Air France paid "1 Pound" each for each Concorde they received, paid nothing towards developmental costs of the airplanes and still never showed a profit flying the planes on only two routes that were sustainable in the long term, New York-Heathrow and New York-Paris. Not exactly a resounding endorsement of supersonic travel when you can only get people to fly to three cities in the world, and even then the seats are not always all sold.
I would love to have flown Concorde, my parents did once, but as an economically viable airline tool: never gonna happen.
I have read it.
The Concorde was 1960s technology. Extrapolation of that into "supersonic will never work" is a flawed conclusion, IMO. Also, it's a book from 1998. Worth reading and learning from, but technology isn't static in the gap.
To add, I'm not saying that Boom will succeed. Just that the concept isn't a foregone conclusion. When the Concorde prototype first flew, cars got 10 miles to the gallon.