The world has seen several notable supersonic airplanes, including the Concorde, the SR-71 and several fighters like the F-16. But there has never been a quiet supersonic plane that could fly over land every day without shaking the windows on the houses below. The goal of the QSST is to change that, by creating a boomless supersonic business jet:

As the video notes, a jet like this would significantly change the travel experience: LA to NY in 2.2 hours, LA to Paris in 4.5 hours. This ad for the jet makes the same point:

The company producing the jet – SAI, or Supersonic Aerospace International, LLC – has aquired several patents on it technology:
- Patent #6,935,592 – Aircraft lift device for low sonic boom
- Patent #6,824,092 – Aircraft tail configuration for sonic boom reduction
- Other SAI patents

This is a real effort with real backing. According to this article:

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has been developing the project for six years under a $25-million contract from SAI. Designed to fly between Mach 1.6 and 1.8 (1,056 to 1,188 miles per hour), the two-engine gull-wing aircraft would leave a sonic wake that’s only one hundredth the strength of the Mach 2-capable Concorde.

The article suggests that aircraft could be available in a 2014 time frame “for about $80 million.”

See also: All Sonic, No Boom

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