Supersonic Planes Are Mounting a Comeback—Without That Earth-Shaking Boom

TWO THINGS EXPLAIN why you aren’t jetting across the country at the speed of sound: cost, and noise. Forty-eight years after the Concorde made its first flight, supersonic commercial aircraft remain enormously complex and prohibitively expensive. They also generate an inevitable sonic boom so disruptive that Congress banned the Concorde from overland routes. But advancements in materials and aerodynamics, coupled with an industry embrace of business jets, could see commercial aircraft achieving… (www.wired.com) 更多...