It used to be that Hacker News was a place for the inventors, the technologists, and the futurists. What happened to our optimism and excitement for firsts?

Airfares have dropped precipitously over the last fifty years: https://simpleflying.com/50-years-airfares/, and it's quite possible that the trend will continue.

Conversely, the speed of commercial flight has barely changed over that time (with the exception of longer flights reducing stops). Boom is innovating in this area and bringing supersonic flight within reach again -- I for one think that's something to be celebrated.

> most of the planet can't afford a plane ticket, nevermind the supersonic bit.

Where did you get that idea from? airlines transported 4.4 billions of passengers in 2023 and 5 billions in 2024 [0]. No matter how you slide those figures, it represents more than just a minority of world population.

> Let me know when this proves economically viable for low cost airfare

Since when this is the goal of commercial supersonic travel?

[0] - https://atag.org/facts-figures

> Until then, bare in mind that most of the planet can't afford a plane ticket, nevermind the supersonic bit.

And thats a good thing. The world can’t afford the carbon (equivalent) emissions of many people flying supersonic.