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Notes -
I do expect that if they can get the noise level down, Mach 1.7 over land will be achievable. Granted this is more of a political than engineering question. On range, yeah, that is a sore spot. Hopefully a LR version gets to 5500nm which unlocks most of the transpacific.
The economics will be interesting. I'm not sure daily service is a must as you can freely mix-and-match supersonic and subsonic travel. Heck, you could run the thing purely westbound (LHR->JFK->LAX/SFO->ICN/HND->DXB->LHR) with the understanding that your biz travelers are taking a lie-flat on their eastbound legs. All-premium has been a losing proposition (RIP midwest) but that seems like a capacity thing right?
That said, you've convinced me to adjust my optimism a bit downwards, at least in the medium (say, 2035/2040) timeframe.
I think we agree now. Overture isn't going to be transformative. If Concerto has another 20% better fuel efficiency per seat mile, a 5500nm range, and a low-boom design that allows Mach 1.7 flight over sparsely populated land areas (particularly most of CONUS and the Australian outback) then that probably would be transformative. But all of those are fighting basic physics - with the possible exception of the range they are not going to happen based on simple incremental improvements.
I like the idea of flying half the Overtures on a westbound RTW route, although you need to add a Singapore stop between Tokyo and Dubai (HND->DXB crosses too much densely populated land, including China which is not going to allow supersonic overflight by Americans, whereas HND->SGP is over water and SGP->DXB is over water if you do a small detour round India - also HND-SGP and SGP-DXB have better economics than HND->DXB). It also doesn't work with current airline business models.
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