We had supersonic air travel before, over oceans. Over land, the speed was reduced to subsonic for boom avoidance. Those flying the airplanes were hard-pressed to make a profit anyway, so it essentially canceled the whole concept. (The Russian Tu-144 was grounded for quality and operational reasons and the American Boeing 2707 development program was terminated...even though completion of the program would have been less expensive than the premature cancellation of contracts.) The present interest involves the expected success of Boom Aerospace's technique for flying at Mach 1 over land, but that involves a much more slender fuselage profile.
The Boeing SST development was under way and we were a destination and departure point for Concorde. The SST program was canceled in 1971. I got to see the Boeing full-scale mock-up at its Developmental Center, sat in the cockpit mock-up, and got to see the horizontal stabilizer structural mock-up exercised at maximum deflection loads (somewhat frightening to watch).
So, by "we" I meant the technologically sophisticated nations.
We had supersonic air travel before, over oceans. Over land, the speed was reduced to subsonic for boom avoidance. Those flying the airplanes were hard-pressed to make a profit anyway, so it essentially canceled the whole concept. (The Russian Tu-144 was grounded for quality and operational reasons and the American Boeing 2707 development program was terminated...even though completion of the program would have been less expensive than the premature cancellation of contracts.) The present interest involves the expected success of Boom Aerospace's technique for flying at Mach 1 over land, but that involves a much more slender fuselage profile.
We?
Yes: Europe and America. Perhaps you weren't there at the time.
I was working in the Filton press shop in 1968 when the USA had nothing.
The Boeing SST development was under way and we were a destination and departure point for Concorde. The SST program was canceled in 1971. I got to see the Boeing full-scale mock-up at its Developmental Center, sat in the cockpit mock-up, and got to see the horizontal stabilizer structural mock-up exercised at maximum deflection loads (somewhat frightening to watch).
So, by "we" I meant the technologically sophisticated nations.