Aerion Corporation, backed by Texas investor Bob Bass, is creating a supersonic business jet that will take to the skies in 2023. At speeds of 1,000 mph, the Aerion AS2 is poised to shrink the globe in a way that the Internet cannot—by allowing face-to-face business relationships on a schedule that only Superman could meet. The AS2 will shave three hours off current transatlantic flight times and trim more than six hours from longer trans-Pacific routes. Imagine breakfast in New York, lunch in London and a same-day return for dinner with family in New York—and that’s on your schedule, not an airlines’.
Breaking the Cost Barrier
Aerion is the brainchild of brilliant aerodynamicist Dr. Richard Tracy. After decades of research, development and demanding computational logistics, Tracy developed a breakthrough supersonic natural laminar flow airfoil, which is highly efficient at both supersonic and subsonic speeds. That means the Aerion AS2 will be practical and cost effective over its entire operating range, irrespective of any over land speed restrictions.
While Aerion engineers were conceiving and patenting the airfoil shapes that blend speed and economy in ways never before attained in commercial or military aircraft, Aerion’s co-chairman, Brian Barents, was searching for risk-sharing partners that could develop and manufacture this new-technology supersonic business jet. Last year, Airbus signed on in a partnership that will most assuredly enable the AS2 to come to market within the next seven years.
Geared for Global Commerce
The three-engine AS2 has a range of 5,400 miles (virtually anywhere on Earth with a maximum of a single refueling stop), top speed of Mach 1.5 and a stand-up, 6’ 2” high cabin with seating for eight to 12 passengers. It is a stunning tool for international business travel. Barents believes the new jet will be highly sought after by business leaders worldwide that value time, want to be there first and depend on face-to-face relationships to jump-start the engines of global commerce.
At a projected $120 million per copy, the AS2 will be about twice the price of today’s top-selling Gulfstream G650, but it is 60 percent faster. Its forté will be high-speed, over-ocean sprints such as New York to London, Paris or Moscow, San Francisco to Tokyo or Madrid to Sao Paulo.
So who is going to buy this finetuned time machine? Major corporations exploring international markets may find the Aerion AS2 an important enhancement to an existing business jet fleet, but Kenn Ricci, chairman of fractional ownership firm Flexjet, has another vision. In November 2015, Ricci took a bold step forward and placed a $2.4 billion order for 20 Aerions up from 10, which he originally anticipated.
After polling current Flexjet fractional owners, Ricci was convinced that the Aerion AS2, designed for speed and distance, would be a winner. “It is not your everyday airplane,” he says, “but, for the times when you need it—for missions that take full advantage of its unique and extraordinary capability—it will be the most powerful business tool that you can imagine.”
CEO PERSPECTIVE / FLEXJET: ADDRESSING ACCESSIBILITY
“What could be better than being a leader in the supersonic arena? The Aerion AS2 is going to be a different kind of airplane than we ever had, and it was the ideal product for where we are going with Flexjet.
“If you are a large corporate flight department or a large company and you have a need for a supersonic jet, it will be for specific trips. It is not a plane that you would use every day,
so it’s ideally suited for our fractional business.
“Because the Aerion is so unique, we cannot provide unlimited access in the same manner as the fractional model. The number of airports where the AS2 can take off and land is limited. The new jet is 175 feet long. It is going to require 7,000-foot runways and specialized ground handling, so we do know that we are going to operate it on route-specific flights. We won’t sell shares, but for an additional fee, we will allow existing owners to have access on flights between specific city pairs. Since we are evolving into Europe next year, that might be New York-to-London or Paris-to-New York.
“Right now, we have significant demand for travel across the Atlantic, and cutting the flight time from seven hours to four hours is huge.”—Kenn Ricci Chairman, Flexjet