“By significantly reducing the time it takes to travel, we are excited to see how humanity will use it to explore, grow, create, and to love.”
The United States has been trying to build a supersonic civil aircraft since the 1960s. Only three countries, and two projects, in history, have ever built a supersonic civil aircraft–the French and British with the Concorde and the Soviet Union with the TU- 144. Today, Tom Vice, Chairman, President, and CEO of Aerion is leading the team at Aerion Supersonic in building the next generation of global transportation networks. These new supersonic networks will not only be very fast, but they will create an amazing new experience in air travel. “We deeply believe that time is humanity’s most precious resource. By significantly reducing the time it takes to travel, we are excited to see how humanity will use it to explore, grow, create, and to love,” says Tom.
True visionaries, the Aerion team has pioneered the first supersonic business jet and the first privately financed supersonic aircraft. The company is developing the first new commercial supersonic aircraft in nearly 50 years and is proud to be in a position to be the first American-led team to build and put into service a civil supersonic aircraft. “We will continue to be a magnet for smart, creative, courageous, and collaborative talent. A talent that will join our team and accelerate innovative solutions to the world’s toughest mobility challenges,” adds Tom.
A Giant Leap
There are numerous challenges, friction points and time-wasters in the everyday mobility networks. Tom and his team are building machines that will give back more of this precious resource. The boundary is not distance — it is time. “We are committed to a vibrant and connected world where distance is no longer a barrier,” adds Tom. The steadfast leader argues that civil aviation took its greatest sustainable leap in speed in 1958, but today, 60 years later, it is still flying at the same speed of the Boeing 707. “Today, we are making some incredible breakthroughs. Our very first product, AS2, will fly at 1,000 mph (Mach 1.4) for 4,200 nautical miles. The AS2 has been designed with the most powerful technologies and tools available anywhere.” Tom knows this because he and his team had to invent these tools, as they did not previously exist, and the result is a groundbreaking efficient aircraft at subsonic, transonic and supersonic speeds. The AS2 will not just be supersonic, it will be fastest general aviation subsonic aircraft in history, able to cruise efficiently at Mach 0.95 for 5,400 nautical miles — that’s London to Hong Kong or San Francisco to Moscow.
Transforming the Future
Tom has a keen focus on the environment, and Aerion is committed to both meeting the latest, most stringent, Stage 5 LTO noise levels, and to becoming carbon neutral. The company is developing technology and operational methods to allow the AS2 to fly in the Mach Cutoff region up to Mach 1.2 overland. This approach ensures that no boom impacts the ground. Aerion has a unique way of harnessing this phenomenology in a real-time operational capability calling it Boomless Cruise. “Our Boomless Cruise capability may be the first technology and operational capability to reliably achieve supersonic flight over the U.S. that regulators will accept, and that the public will embrace,” elucidates Tom. “On the other hand, the GE Affinity engine is the core enabling technology for a new, efficient era of supersonic flight—and GE has been clear that the AS2’s engine is the first in a family of Affinity supersonic engines.”
Aerion has a 50-year product roadmap. The AS2 supersonic business jet is just its first revolutionary product, Tom says there is more to come. “We are doing something truly special. We are building the next generation of global transportation networks that allow a customer to have breakfast and dinner with her children in NYC and meet with her clients in London all in the same day”.
