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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

A supersonic passenger jet would not find much of market on short haul flights. They would either stick to the dense pockets of wealth, the biggest airports beside the biggest cities, or rely on feeder airports to bring passengers in. Either way, I don't see this saving much in actual travel time over the current system.

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It's certainly niche, but NY-LON sees ~3 million non-connecting passengers a year.

If they can make it quiet enough to be supersonic over land, it's a lot more compelling. But even being supersonic for the atlantic crossing will shave hours off of most EU routes from NY.

I think the bigger problem is the time changes on a lot of routes make EU flights pretty efficient - you don't want the overnight flights to be shorter really (and I wish most were longer).

Maybe overnight flights should optionally let you sleep on the ground before/after the flight. Charge extra, you don't have to pay pilots or for fuel, park away from the gate.

You would need power without the engines but you could hook up a generator or a feed from the airport.

Planes run on shore power at the gate anyway.

Then turn on all the lights and wake you up for the preflight briefing!

I've been on redeye flights where, a few hours in, the pilot came on the PA, told us about something to see out the window, and also about the drink we could buy from the flight attendants - credit cards only please!

Air travel is just endless indignities and discomfort.

What would you possibly see out the window in the dark?

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