I think the next evolution will be Sub orbital jets, that get out of the earths atmosphere then re-enter.
They will not be the fuel hogs that supersonic jets are.
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
possibly a question better asked in the "where will engineering be in 5 years" forum.
i agree that sub orbital flight is probably the next step. there has been much research to reduce the ground level perception/impact of a sonic boom ... maybe there's something commercial there, maybe not. but Virgin have already demonstrated their "prrof-of-concept".
another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
Perhaps the lazy OP could do some calculations on the various options to demonstrate what the advantages in flight time, for popular routes would be, and the disadvantage in fuel cost. An artcile I read suggested the only viable market is NY-London, and given the tedious boarding arrangements M2 was about as fast as you needed.
Cheers
Greg Locock
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Or, as improved teleconferencing & virtual presence becomes widespread will the need for moderately important folk to travel drop off so much that it splits into plebs going transonic and uber rich going SSBJ.
Supersonic flight was already tried. Remember the Concorde. High speed rail is what I envisioned even between continents (except Australia) if countries decide on coorperation instead of wars and distruss. Suborbital flights will be too expensive and probably risky to the safety of the passengers. Has anybody come up with a dollar value (today's value, not 1961 value) of the first manned suborbital flight by Alan Shepard?
Commercial jets...no. Private jets...likely. It's all about the 0.01%. Sub-orbital looks like too much passenger inconvenience for not enough gain for widespread adoption. Next 40 years is likely to be all about implementation/improvement of maglev.