TRATEGIES
MARCH 2020 | 35TRATEGIES
T
he clashing business strategies of
Aerion and Boom Supersonic are visi-
ble in the marketing pitches for their
proposed supersonic passenger jets.
Aerion, based in Nevada and part-
ly owned by Boeing, promises on its
website to break down the “barrier to family, love,
adventure, and time well spent.” Meanwhile, in
Colorado, rival Boom asks business travelers to
“imagine crossing the Atlantic, conducting business,
and being home in time to tuck your kids into bed.”
In short, for Aerion, the path toward commer-
cially viable supersonic travel runs through the
super wealthy, who today buy business jets for fun
as much as business. Boom, by contrast, wants to
start by introducing a supersonic design that airlines
will buy for business-class customers.
The question is whose strategy has the best odds
of making supersonic travel a reality — not just for
business travelers or billionaires, but someday for
all of us. If their manufacturing schedules are to be
believed, by the mid-2020s, the fi rst evidence will
begin to roll in.
One point of consensus among the competitors is
that the revolution will require persistence and patience
by those who fund the endeavors and those who will
regulate the aircraft for safety, noise and emissions.
Boeing’s Eric Kaduce, director of the Boeing-
Aerion venture, drew a parallel between this era and
the 1950s. “When the 707 and the DC-8 came out,
the range was shorter than a Super Constellation,”
he said at January’s AIAA SciTech Forum, referring
to Lockheed’s famous propeller-driven airliner. The
fi rst jets were noisier and burned more fuel. “ We
could have regulated [jet fl ight] out of existence,” he
said. Instead, the 707 and DC-8 set the industry on
a path toward modern airliners that are 70% quiet-
er and that burn 70% to 80% less fuel. “I think i t ’s
time for us to do it again with supersonics,” he said.
For Aerion, the starting point will be its 12- to
13-person, Mach 1.4 business jet, the AS2. Aerion
plans to fl y the fi rst one in 2024 and deliver the fi rst
aircraft to customers in 2026.
Creating a supersonic business jet will be “a
little bit of a lower-risk way of starting to build those
regulatory pathways, those environmental pathways,
and prove out the technology,” Kaduce told the
SciTech audience.Aerion’s red AS2
and Boom’s Overture
represent companies
with di erent
approaches to the
potential market for
supersonic aircraft.
Aerion and Boom