We’ve already built and flown craft that exceed hypersonic speed, like the Boeing X-51 Waverider, so we know that building something like this one is at least possible. The biggest obstacle to hypersonic flight isn’t creating the perfect design, though — it’s making the flights affordable. So far, scaling it up (bigger crafts that can go for longer periods of time) has just been too expensive. As John Plueger, president and CEO of AirLease Corp., told CNBC, “It’s hard for me to see, at least in the next 15-20 years, that it’s going to be so cost competitive that it’s going to compel the airlines to take a stab at it."
You are viewing a single comment's thread from: