Nevertheless, pledges to reach such speeds for commercial travel have already been made. Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Virgin Galactic have said their eventual high-speed point-to-point aircraft service will operate above earth’s atmosphere, at hypersonic speeds, unlike envisioned supersonic aircraft that cruise at lower altitudes, around 60,000 feet (18,288 meters).
Vice said Aerion is focused on speeds around Mach 4.3 for the AS3 because of heating, shock waves and other tricky engineering issues that emerge at Mach 5 and above.
“I think it’s really exciting, frankly, that there are a number of companies now in this space thinking of high-speed flight,” Vice said. “I’m encouraged by that. There are a lot of really great folks who are trying to find different paths. But you’ve got to solve the engine issue.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.