Supersonic commercial flight - Curt Lewis

Is this $120 Million Supersonic Jet the Future of Commercial Flight?


What if you could fly from Hong Kong to Los Angeles in just four hours? On board the Cygnus M3, you'd be able to do just that.

Created by UK-based innovator Tom Johnson (who was inspired by military bombers from the 1950s and '60s), the supersonic aircraft concept has a top speed of Mach 3-or 2,000 mph-and features a sleek, svelte structure with variable-geometry wings, which can sweep back and forth while airborne.


"The swing-wing design permits slower, safer, and quieter take-off and landing, and would also allow the jet to cruise more economically at subsonic speeds when over land, where commercial supersonic flight is currently illegal," he says.

Rather than focusing on reducing the sonic boom generated by short-range, low-supersonic vessels as many similar concepts aim to do, Johnson strived to conceptualize "a faster, longer-range aircraft that would enable an over-water route business case to be built, even if over-land supersonic flight were still prohibited."


The Rockwell B-1B Lancer is the only active aircraft in the U.S. Air Force with a swing-wing.

The end result is a 135-foot-long, 25-ton jet powered by two mixed-cycle turbofan engines, able to accommodate up to 32 passengers and four crew members. Johnson estimates that the plane-which could travel up to 6,710 miles fully loaded-would require an estimated $120 million to construct, and tickets for the commercial airliner would cost roughly $3,300 per head for a round-trip flight, depending on fuel prices.


The Cygnus M3 could theoretically be built with existing know-how, but it would take at least a decade to produce a viable prototype, Johnson admits. "The main engineering challenges of this design would be finding and developing an appropriate power plant-though there are two suitable engines already in existence that could serve as the base-and dealing with the heat generated at during mach 2.8 cruise," he says.

Then there are the legal roadblocks. "While all the technologies required do exist and have been flown, some will still be covered by patents and military export restrictions, which will need to be overcome," he notes.

More pressing, however, is the issue of safety. "Even if well-funded, this is still a modern commercial craft that cannot be rushed into production and flight like many military aircraft in the past-some of which, like the SR-71, were quite dangerous to fly." A vast amount of redundancy must be designed in, he asserts, combined with a lengthy test program.

The Cygnus M3 might be years from becoming a reality, but supersonic flight is well on its way to making a comeback.

At the Paris Air Show last month, startup aerospace company Boom Technology announced that five airlines-among them, Virgin-have placed orders for a supersonic commercial craft it is currently developing. The $200 million passenger jet, which is slated to arrive by 2023, will boast a top speed of Mach 2.2, or 1,451 mph (more than two-and-a-half times faster than any other commercial plane), allowing travelers to fly from New York to London in a little over three hours.

The airliner is still in its concept phase; however, the XB-1-a smaller version of the Boom commercial plane, touted as "the first independently developed supersonic jet and history's fastest civil aircraft"-is slated to take to the skies next year.

Boom Technology
A one-third scale version of the Boom passenger jet, the XB-1 will take off in 2018.

"Long flights are a barrier to travel. We're removing that barrier, turning eight-hour redeyes into three- to four-hour daytime flights. Excruciating 16-hour journeys become easy overnights," Boom states on its website. "When you can get there in half the time, where will you go?"