[fastball]

I don't know, the entire rocket industry is having to to re-orient itself around SpaceX's reusable rockets.

And given current usage, the gains in better rockets presumably pale in comparison to the potential savings / improvements that could be provided by new airframe designs.

[coredog64]

One could make the argument that prior to SpaceX’s entry into the market, there was stagnation due to limited market participants, cost-plus contracts, etc.

Commercial aviation is the exact opposite of this: Since deregulation, airlines have been operating in a highly competitive market with external pressures that have forced adoption of new technologies (oil prices => fuel efficiency, noise regulation => high bypass engines, labor costs => replacement of the flight engineer)

[fastball]

You're confusing airlines with manufacturers though. We're talking about an airplane design here, not the operation of it.

Effectively there are only two international long-haul airplane manufacturers (i.e. producers of planes that would compete with the OP) – Airbus and Boeing. That seems like "limited market participants" to me.

[iso1631]

What will be really interesting is if suborbital reusable rockets reach a similar cost per mile as long distance planes.