Can anyone with a relevant background, a la aerospace engineering, begin to speculate as to how this team could accomplish such lofty goals on what very much seems like a shoestring budget? FTA, there's mention of "efficient aerodynamics, advanced composite materials, and an efficient propulsion system," but that seems to be the general arch of aerospace engineering anyway -- what's the secret to 10x more efficient R&D?
The technology's existed since the 1960s - the Concorde flew for 27 years. They're hiring a bunch of engineers out of existing aerospace companies to do the actual work - these companies all know how to build SSTs, they just don't think it's worth it.
What's changed is the market. It wasn't economical to run the Concorde for most of its service lifespan, because demand for fast business travel was limited and fuel prices were high. Then globalization and income inequality happened. There are a lot of very lucrative fields right now where it's beneficial to be in SF in the morning and Shanghai for dinner, then back to SF for the next morning. And fuel prices are on their way back down.
They can probably build it a bit more efficiently than in the days of the Concorde, Tu-144, and Boeing 2707, but the real driver here is the existence of wealthy firms who will pay a lot to shlep their employees across the globe in a day.
>Then globalization and income inequality happened.
Yeah, I think this is the new driver for SST. There's now a class of customers who can easily afford whatever the ticket price will be, so a market is assured.
Unfortunate for those of us who would prefer not to hear sonic booms day and night.
One thing to note is that this $100 million only needs to allow them to build their 1/3 scale prototype - if they're successfully able to demonstrate the viability of their technology, they'll presumably be able to acquire further funding much more easily.
I'd say they cant produce a low enough signature with the nacelles on the bottom as currently displayed. see all aircraft in this nasa clip from April 2018.
