Supersonic Planes are Coming Back (And This Time, They Might Work) 

You know its a Wendover video when the sentence ends like this

The only reason Concorde failed is they didn’t use skillshare

One thing to consider is that the reason why they turned a profit after it was announced they were retiring was because people wanted to try to fly on the concord before it was retired

In the last 6 months of Concorde people knew it was the last 6 months of Concorde, there wasn't ever going to be a problem filling those seats because people just wanted to be able to say they had flown Concorde. It was effectively an amusment park ride at that point.

This guy never gets tired of planes. True legend.

It’s been 2 months since an airline video, I’m surprised he made it this long tbh

I’m glad you talked about passenger productivity. Amtrak in the US did a similar study. They were focused on speed and reducing commute time between DC and NYC. What they discovered was that most people didn’t care about shaving time off the trip, they cared more about being able to use their time on the train. So Amtrak solved their problem by just including outlets to recharge laptops and free Wi-Fi.

Two weeks later: Aerion Supersonic goes bust. This aged well.

Concorde used to fly over my house when I was a kid. We lived right at the coast of the Bristol Channel, which was the point at which Concorde was allowed to go supersonic. Sometimes they'd go supersonic a bit early. The boom was real. I used to love hearing it because I was amazed by Concorde, but it was loud and sometimes the windows used to shake.

Of all the names they could’ve gone with, they went with “Boom.” That’s like if I named a construction company “Collapse.”

Welp, United just bought 15 of these that are coming in 2029! You predicted it!

And just like that Aerion is shut down two weeks after you talk about them.

As a pilot who grew up with a concorde poster above his bed, i can't wait for the chance to fly one of these one day!

Marketing Team: Okay so we finally got a great name for our supersonic flight compan-- CEO: BOOM! Marketing Team: Uh...what are you--? CEO: ...BOOM.

Today - June 3, 2021 - United Airlines announced that they ordered 15 new supersonic jets to be built by American start-up Boom Supersonic, to be completed by the year 2029, pending U.S. government approval. The model is the "Overture", and is expected to be the Concorde's direct successor. Testing will begin in 2025-2026.

9:40 for anyone who wants examples of this, there are occasions where fighters are cleared for supersonic travel over the continental united states for emergency response and they leave a string of videos of people hearing *BANG* and flinching, dogs bark, kids cry, mass confusion to be had; all because a Cessna was flying in a restricted airspace around the president

I love how prestige is one of the reasons for choosing a less comfortable, more expensive mode of transport. "sir, why do you want to spend $120 million on a small, uncomfortable plane?" "Because I don't wanna be seen as a poor peasant by flying first class."

We all know that the Magic Schoolbus is a more efficient Transportation System than any super sonic plane

My sister's boss used to fly Concorde from London to New York all the time. He loved that he could fly from London, land in New York, do what he needed to do there, then fly back to London the same day. I suppose he also had the benefit of flying before security measures tagged a few extra hours onto door-to-door airline travel.

Aerion is shutting down today. I think it's highly unlikely that any of these companies will succeed. Business travel will never fully recover after COVID and it will be hard to secure financing.

I grew up as a TWA brat and got to fly on the Concorde once, in 1983, from London to New York. The passenger experience on the plane was actually very similar to subsonic transatlantic first class. The coolest part of the flight was watching the cabin speedometer approach and then surpass Mach 1. Though landing in New York "earlier" than you left London was a little weird.

As a boy I flew London - Cairo on Concorde back in 1997, as a gift from a wealthy grandmother. Every passenger got a goody bag with a model of the aircraft, a bottle of champagne and a tin of caviar. Weird and wonderful experience!

Its one thing to lower the noise of the sonic boom, its another thing to change the environmental issues that the boom itself creates. If aerion, boom, and spike can tackle that issue, and come up with a way to change the boom noise limits, then there is no doubt that these companies are going to be highly profitable. Edit: Welp, helps to read the rest of the comments…

Concord operated for about 4 decades. That's longer than most commercial aircraft. The video repeated refers Concord failing, it didn't fail, it operated well beyond it's expected life time and retired of old age. Concord most definitely was an absolute success.

The thing with "productive time lost in the air" is that if you change a 10 hour flight into a 3 hour flight, you can be fully useful for 7 hours more and simply rest for 3 hours, rather than be partially productive for 10 hours...

I actually heard the Sonic "thump" from one of NASA's tests. I go to college on Galveston Island, just south of Houston. This was like 2 years ago. NASA was testing this new technology just offshore and was asking random citizens on the island what their thoughts was on the noise. I remember walking downtown when I heard this brief "thump" it wasn't loud, but it was definitely noticeable. It made me look up at the sky briefly before I realized what I just heard.

Honolulu seems like a perfect hub for these. Lots of flights from the continental US, Japan, Australia, etc., come though HNL, and they're all mainly over water.

I would argue that it “worked” last time with Concorde. Admittedly on nowhere near the number of destinations the designers or airlines wanted, but was hugely successful at its peak on transatlantic routes and flew for 30 years before its sad retirement.

"Nearly everyone has heard some version of why concord failed" This is what we call the curse of knowledge effect

the first ever supersonic plane (bell x-1, the one that's in D.C. aerospace museum if you look up when you enter, it's bright orange.) was built by a team which included my great-grandfather.

You should do "Economics of Night Trains" - noting the creation of NightJet in 2016 and the recent rise in political/environmental interest in overnight rail services across Europe

Also, there was a Russian Concorde, the Tupolev Tu-144, which crashed a few times, but nobody seems to remember because it was a Soviet aircraft.

Soviet TU-144 be like : I offer caviar on the plane and paper and pens so you can communicate with you friends on board because it’s too damn loud

"You don't want to use the word "Boom" with a supersonic airplane." - Peggy Olson, probably.

I've followed all of the companies here as well as the Concord and unmentioned TU-144 for the majority of my 62 years. This is the best coverage of the players, their strategies, technologies, and likelihood for success. Very well put together.

"Aerion is not in the business of selling pipe dreams" They're not in the business of selling anything. Whole company's shutting down. Pop goes the bullshit

I remember the hype over Concorde's last flight in 2003. I still can't believe it has been almost 20 years...

I like to think that some engineer saw the XB-70 Valkyrie and said _"Let's put passengers on it!"_

You have no idea how badly I want a supersonic flight experience

Another amazing video. Signed up to annual nebula/curiosity stream bundle yesterday, spent most of yesterday and half last night just lying watching nebula! Fab service, some awesome documentaries. Can't wait to get stuck back in later

As a child we enjoyed the suprise of frequent sonic booms ..living close to the air force academy

I wrote a paper on this exact topic back in 6th grade 8 years ago, it’s crazy how much of what I wrote is still in progress and still stands

Honestly the only reason why I want supersonic travel to return and be made more affordable is because I don't want to sit 12+ hours in economy class on a normal plane just to visit Asia.

I love this channel, even though I don’t know much about planes nor do I really care to. It’s just really interesting to listen to and relax for a couple of minutes :)

"ran over a piece of engine cowling that a previous departure had lost" This. People forget that it was debris from ANOTHER flight that caused the tragic crash, the crash didn't happen on its own. The attractiveness of supersonic travel declined because people remember this crash, on top of the noise, and think all supersonic jets are dangerous

Everyone: worrying abt efficiency and how to make aviation more echo friendly These guys: GOTTA GO FAST

...i rememeber hearing Concorde growing up back in Nova scotia. It would move the storm windows in the farm house i grew up in... it was SO loud.

The Concorde never failed. An Aircraft that first flew in 1969, entered service in 1976, retired in 2003, was profitable and only had one loss is a success story, hardly a failure

Sam returning to his roots in airplanes. We missed it. Thank you. Your plane videos are always my favorite.

Well, Aerion just shut down, so now there's just two.

If I ever hear a 110 decibel noise over my house I’m buying a stinger missile system

"This time is different!"... Yeah, the most expensive sentence ever is here again, I see

This is exciting

Wendover and Mustard. My two favorite channels! Great content as always!

I’m going to try that Nebula & Curiosity Stream bundle one of these days. It actually looks great!

I was only 3 years old when Concorde went out of business for good. When I first saw what one looked like when I was 8, I've since been fascinated by its unique shape and ability to fly at 60 thousand feet. Since I've never even had the chance to experience Concorde, I would LOVE if one of these companies helps it have a second life, because we seriously need another one back in the skies

Super sonic is like that thing we didn’t think we need.

This time, they'll be so fast they'll arrive before they started.

And... BOOM, Aerion is defunct!

International air travel: stops Wendover: and I took that personally

My cousin's father in law was a Concorde pilot, we call him Mr. Super Sonic, he's a true English gentleman and has some truly amazing stories. As a flyer myself, I was utterly in awe; maybe even a bit star struck!

I live in a rural area next to a small airport. Because of the geography of where I live, the Air Force often trains around my area. My dad is an military aircraft buff and we have so much military air traffic that he can identify what specific type of aircraft is going overhead just by sound without having to look up. We have seen everything from Chinooks, Ospreys, numerous types of fighter jets, C-130s and C5 Galaxies. I say all this to say that I would welcome with open arms the prospect of another supersonic jet flying overhead. That noise is such an awesome thing to behold, in the most dictionary-definition sense of the word “awesome”.

We would love a wendover productions video on the process of making a wendover video. How you do your research, organize animations, etc.

Tbh, i just really hope that if they come back this time they are able to stay

Fun fact: flights from detroit to chicago are so short and change time zones, you arrive before you left

the quality of these videos keeps improving!

As a traveler that frequents TPAC flights in business class, I can tell you that I value hotel bed time more than airplane lie-flat time. Reducing the flight time on the brutal 12+ hour flights would be HUGE.

When Jay-Z said "Bring back the Concorde", *I felt that* I got to go inside a British Airways Concorde as part of a tour at the Intrepid Museum in NYC, one of the few Concordes displayed outside Europe. And it was a pretty cool experience to be able to sit in the cockpit of the Concorde that made the fastest Transatlantic crossing by any commercial aircraft, the G-BOAD. The Concorde remains my favorite aircraft and I hope one day I'll be able to fly in a supersonic jet myself whether it be across the Atlantic or the Pacific. Boom is playing it smart by targeting that market in case countries don't change laws

I love when he’s talking about BOOM’s partners and he’s just casually like yeah they’re backed by the US Air Force no biggie.

High speed internet has hurt the viability as well. When certain business absolutely had to be conducted in person there was real value to cutting a 6 hour flight in half to some people. But with the ability to work the entire flight in spacious first class or on a private jet the time doesn’t matter as much.

It’s so hard to pay attention after noticing that Every. Sentence. Ends. Like. This. It’s a neuroatypical thing. Can’t actually hear the words anymore because I’m anticipating the pattern.

I'm not flying on anything called Boom. I can just imagine the ironic 'Plane goes boom' headlines the day after the crash

I saw the Concord takeoff at Heathrow in the early 90’s. It was significantly louder than the 747s on takeoff. I grew up near Beal AFB and every once in a while we would get a sonic boom from a SR-71 shake our house.

Wow what an amazing report. Great report and great montage. Everything is perfect.

Also, today we've got Skype, Zoom and whatnot. They'll always be faster than flying across the ocean...

As a kid in the UK, hearing the boom of Concorde every evening at around 7.20pm on it's flight path from New York to London, regular as clockwork, was normal. It didn't sound like a chainsaw in your hand. In fact, you could barely hear it at all, it was more a shockwave you felt accompanied by a single clap of VERY distant thunder. Windows rattled slightly for a second, seagulls took off, people looked up and smiled. That was it. We all knew what it was and accepted it. It never interfered with everyday life, it was PART of life, like a clock chiming that you stop hearing after a while. When the flights finally stopped, the lack of boom in the evenings was deafening for a long, long time.

I was getting worried by the lack of planes on this channel - no one ever keep it up I want more floaty bois

Concorde flew low over my house and no other plane has come near to dropping my jaw, wow I really miss it. 🤔

Great vid. Thanks mate :)

6:01 The Concorde wasn’t the first supersonic passenger plane; The TU-144 was.

Small correction at 8:38 - The silver RR logo is for "Rolls-Royce motor cars" (a subsidiary of BMW) and is a separate company from "Rolls-Royce" with the blue RR logo, who make aero-engines and are working with Boom.

Thanks for this video it helped with my physics test

BREAKING NEWS: Aerion confirmed today (21/5/21) they are shutting down. "In the current financial environment, it has proven hugely chellenging to close on the scheduled and necessary large new capital requirements" to being production of their AS2 jet, says the company.

When you think about it, Concorde was an astonishing thing, especially for the time it was realized in

I grew up on the South coast of Ireland, the concord would go supersonic when it hit the Celtic sea and its sonic boom would rattle our windows twice a day. We were over 100m from a quiet rural road so it was far easier to hear distant sounds than it would be for most people still it was not even a minor annoyance, it's nothing compared to traffic noise from cars and trucks that the vast majority of people must endure. The big issue with supersonic flight is unsustainable fuel consumption.

Another Challenge for Commercial flights is the increased Ground time in the post 9/11 world. If you need to spend 2hrs on either end of a flight on the ground, knocking few hours off a shorter flight matters less. It would still help with longer haul routes like LA to Sydney if the plane has the range,

6:37 2023 here. Aerion shuttered in 2021. Spike has gone quiet. Boom it would appear is still doing stuff. XB-1 still hasn't flown.

Let's be real here, regardless of the cost. Emirates will be in the front door of Boom to grab a fleet of jets XD

Living 30 miles west of Heathrow, the boom wasn't a problem, but the roar of the engines made conversation impossible for about a minute as she flew overhead (on takeoff) I don't know anyone who doesn't miss that daily 11am roar. Right up until the end everyone would just look up and admire her flying past, then conversations would continue as the noise subsided. It was funny that the interruption wouldn't even be mentioned unless somebody was visiting and they brought it up. There was a lot of national pride in Concorde, I'm not sure that'll carry over to a new aircraft design.

Thanks for your sharing

The exciting thing is that if successful, everyone else will follow and it might become a standard thing to have super sonic air travel some day.

I used to live in Greenwich London, right under the approach path to Heathrow. These planes were LOUD even while landing and taking off. you always knew when concord came in by the sheer level of noise.

Something that I think got left out of the discussion, when you mentioned that time on a plane is no longer unproductive time, is that very little business travel is going to be time critical at all. For things that are time critical, businesses will most likely turn to telepresence over travel. There is no need to get from New York to London by tomorrow morning to negotiate and sign an agreement, when you can now set up a Zoom call for the morning, negotiate your agreement, and then sign the agreement using a service like Docusign (you could even do hard copies and send them back and forth by mail if you need the hard copies for posterity). There still will be some need for urgent travel (eg we need an engineer that specializes in X to go to the field to inspect a broken X and determine a method to fix it) but most business travel is going to be something that is planned out weeks, if not months, in advance and will have great flexibility on when the travel occurs (eg we are opening a new branch and need to send out trainers to teach the management at the new location how to operate prior to opening, you could easily move that up or back a week or two without impacting operations too greatly).

Awesome! Thanks for this video!!

The experience of Concorde was spectacular. The flight time could be varied, the uniforms changed mid flight, and the service onboard was beyond first class. The little known fact is that only 14 passengers had views from their windows

TBH, I just want high-speed railway, like the Shinkansen in Japan.

10:34 "If successful, it will turn the perceived loudness of a sonic boom, from that of a chain saw, to a car...door...closing." *redline reviews* The jet makes a solid sounding *thunk*

I recall visiting relatives in Oklahoma City in the '60's when sonic boom tests were being performed. I was a child then, but my recollection is I would want the sonic boom to be quite a bit quieter than what was generated during that testing.

Really excellent analysis, thank you

It was long overdue for Wendover to upload another video about airplanes