Advocates of business aviation have long valued its unique ability to save time, expediting travel and facilitating quicker connections. But as aircraft have become incrementally faster, no supersonic business jet (SSBJ) concept has yet made it to market, despite attention from established OEMs and various start-ups over the last four decades. Although breaking the sound barrier may be technically feasible, a limited commercial market for such aircraft—hindered by existing regulatory restrictions—has resulted in an as-yet-unbroken barrier.
To date, only two commercial aircraft have operated faster than the speed of sound: the British Aircraft Corporation Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144 (the latter operated only on a single Moscow-to-Kazakhstan route). Concorde’s commercial service was curtailed in 2003, marking the end of civilian supersonic travel.
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