Supersonic transport

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A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. The last passenger flight of the Tu-144 was in June 1978 and it was last flown in 1999 by NASA. Concorde's last commercial flight was in October 2003, with a November 26, 2003 ferry flight being its last flight.

Following the termination of flying by Concorde, there have been no SSTs in commercial service. However, several companies have proposed supersonic business jet designs. Small SSTs have less environmental impact and design capability improves with continuing research which is aimed at producing an acceptable aircraft.

Supersonic airliners have been the objects of numerous recent^[when?] ongoing design studies. Drawbacks and design challenges are excessive noise generation (at takeoff and due to sonic booms during flight), high development costs, expensive construction materials, high fuel consumption, extremely high emissions, and an increased cost per seat over subsonic airliners. However, despite these challenges, Concorde was claimed to have operated profitably.^[1]