[rob74]

Yes, but air travel is already something everyone (in the developed world) can afford. Same as almost everyone can afford a VW Golf, Ford Focus, Toyota... whatever. What Boom wants to build is the equivalent of a Ferrari or Lamborghini - it does the same thing as a normal airliner, but faster and in a more resource-consuming and therefore expensive way. And, like most people can't afford a super sports car, most people won't be able to afford a ticket for their supersonic airplanes (same as they couldn't afford a ticket for Concorde).

[JumpCrisscross]

> air travel is already something everyone (in the developed world) can afford

Ship travel was already something most people in developed countries could afford. What’s the use of getting around faster and higher off the ground?

[reallydontask]

A Transatlantic crossing took around ~ 100 hours, whereas a plane takes ~ 7 hours. So, we are talking about an order of magnitude improvement.

It's hardly the same thing with a supersonic airliner, which just reduces the time in roughly half.

[credit_guy]

However, the first commercial passenger transatlantic flights took 29 hours, on the Panam B-314.

http://www.century-of-flight.freeola.com/new%20site/commerci...

[anovikov]

If it will be as expensive as Concorde, it won't work exactly as Concorde didn't. It's got to be a lot cheaper - at least 2x cheaper - to have any chance of working. And then, everyone who can afford a first class ticket, will be able to afford that.

My bet is somewhere like $4000 roundtrip trans-Atlantic ticket or $3000 cross-country ticket in U.S. is about the maximum the market will bear.

[madamelic]

>$3000 cross-country ticket in U.S. is about the maximum the market will bear.

Boom won't be flying over any country. They will only travel over oceans, to prevent issues / complaints that Concorde had.

[anovikov]

Then they are toast before they start. Any supersonic startup must solve the noise problem first. It is solvable with proper aerodynamical tricks, at least in theory.

[soapboxrocket]

I would note that today's VW Golf has better horsepower and a higher top speed than the first Ferrari.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

I wonder what the difference in MPG is?