Supersonic jet manufacturer Aerion recently announced that airline provider Flexjet has placed a fixed order for 20 samples of the Aerion AS2 supersonic jet – for which the company began taking orders last year – making Flexjet the aircraft’s first fleet operator. the first publicly available supersonic jet since commercial supersonic travel ended in 2003.
Each aircraft costs $ 120 million, for a total ordering potential of $ 2.4 billion. Aerion says the AS2 will carry 8 to 12 passengers in a 30-foot-long cabin at speeds like Mach 1.5 (990 mph). With a range of up to 5,466 miles, the AS2 cuts the trans-Atlantic travel time by 3 hours and shortens the eastern Pacific routes by 6 hours or more.
Aerion Corp. has signed an agreement with NetJets for 20 of its supersonic jets
Thanks to Aerion Corp.
Flex Ric chairman Kenn Ricci called the plane a “potential game changer for business travel”. Flexjet and Aerion will work together to design a custom, premium cabin interior for the Flexjet fleet. Aerion says all the extra speed for busy international travelers can quickly deliver more productive days and even weeks over the course of a year. For example, a typical long-range business jet that would record about 250,000 miles in a year would fly about 500 hours, while the same miles could be covered in about 300 hours in the AS2. The difference for travelers is equal to 25 working days of eight hours.
Aerion also announced that it has grown its partnership with Airbus Group, and the company is now looking for premises to build a manufacturing facility. Airbus will expand the resources it contributes to the program, which includes engineering, logistics planning and management support. “The further we go with Aerion on the development path, the greater our enthusiasm for this program and the deeper our commitment,” said Allan McArtor, Chairman and CEO of Airbus Group. “Under our new agreement, we are working with two companies as one, to bring Aerion’s supersonic AS2 to the business jet market.” The first flight is expected for 2021, with the first delivery of the aircraft for 2023.