The Boeing company today said that it is shelving plans to build its Sonic Cruiser airplane, a jet designed to fly near the speed of sound and cut flight times by 15 to 20%. They decided that it was simply uneconomical.
On top of this, we have the Concorde, which has languished since the late 70s, and has never made a profit.
Sadly, I must conclude that we will never be able to break the barriers to high speed travel (much like high speed data) because it is economically nonviable. Warp speed? Too expensive. Matter transportation? It’ll never make money. Space folding, wormholes, time machines… who would ever invest in such a thing?
We’re in danger of falling back and in on ourselves. We no longer look to the skies dreaming of breaking the bonds of this planet. Instead we hanker to connect our computers better and experiment on a little trophy space station to grow better soybeans. Dammit, let’s get moving on those fusion engines and set sail for new planets.
The Boeing company today said that it is shelving plans to build its Sonic Cruiser airplane, a jet designed to fly near the speed of sound and cut flight times by 15 to 20%. They decided that it was simply uneconomical.
