JamesNoBrakes

Will believe it when there are flying prototypes and conformity testing.

Cubdriver

An industry-government consortium on the Concorde had a design for it in about 1960, first prototype flew in 1969 and certification was in 1976. They had been talking about it for twenty plus years at that point. I doubt this airplane can beat that sort of timeline and they do not have the design freeze yet. However, what has changed in my thinking in the last 5 years is the fact that money is there for ultra expensive civilian airplanes. For example, Gulfstream sold more airplanes during the (world) recession than any other time, which tells us the clients for ultra costly aircraft are economy-proof. Oil sheiks and various other top stars of world industry. If 75 of such buyers can be gathered they will probably make this Aerion. That number comes from historical studies of new military aircraft programs, you need to sell at least 75 units to get reasonable ROI. That's not a lot of airplanes and I think they can find the buyers.

JamesNoBrakes

Possibly...I was just thinking about the 20 or so VLJs that never came into existence. Boeing SST, NASP, etc.

biigD

How is the pay and QOL?

Yoda2

I am an eternal optimist, though also a realist. If it couldn't go from LA to NY or Orlando in less than two hours, I wouldn't be too interested. And to up JNB, I'll believe it when it is certified and operational. On another note: Where I would like to see some real progress is in medical research. I am so tired of seeing fundraisers for various diseases, Etc. with IMO, less than satisfactory results. I would like to see the brainiacs get what they really need to function effectively in that area, more than seeing a supersonic biz jet.

Cubdriver

Flying this jet? Probably very good pay for the first few dozen recruits, venturing a guess they will only hire military retirees with super-cruise experience who expect same or better pay than other top pilot jobs. In time salaries could come down a bit as a larger number of people exist to do training and additional sims come online, but will remain high enough to draw people from most alternatives. Pure speculation on that, and who knows what QOL will be like.

galaxy flyer

There's very few ex-mil guys with supercruise experience. Look at the Concorde, the original supercruiser, crewed mostly by non-mil BA civilian pilots. They have the most supersonic time around, albeit, mostly retired. If it's done right, and it happens, not a big deal.

GF

Yoda2

I'm sure Richard Tracy and company can pull it off technically, just the age old issue of having a fat enough wallet.