Jet builder Aerion expects to fly silent supersonic planes by 2024, unlocking a $40 billion market

Jan. 17, 2020
AS2 is designed to fly at an altitude where its sonic boom will bounce off the atmosphere, “so on the ground you don’t hear it,” Aerion Supersonic CEO Tom Vice said, according to Michael Sheetz for CNBC.

NEW YORK CITY – Supersonic air travel is only a few years from returning if a small U.S. company succeeds in developing its next-generation jet. Nevada-based Aerion expects to begin flying its AS2 supersonic jet by 2024, the company’s CEO Tom Vice said on Thursday, speaking at a UBS conference in New York City, reports Michael Sheetz for CNBC. Continue reading original article

The Intelligent Aerospace take:

January 17, 2020-Aerion says its supersonic AS2 passenger jet will make a sonic boom, but it will refract off a dense layer of the atmosphere so people on the ground don't hear it, which, if accurate, would check off one of the barriers to faster-than-sound civilian travel - the noise.

Aerion says it has a backlog of $2.5 billion in orders, and expects that to swell to $3.5 billion by the end of the year at the AS2's list price of $120 million per jet. The company wants to put the supersonic flyer into service by 2026.

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Related: The U.S. should lead the way back to supersonic flight

Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace

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