With AIN Media Group's Aviation International News and its predecessor Aviation Convention News celebrating the company's 50th year of continuous publication this year, AIN’s editorial staff is going back through the archives each month to bring readers some interesting events that were covered over the past half-century.
REWIND: (July 2005) Last month at the Paris Air Show, Reno, Nev.-based Aerion said its market research, conducted over the past nine months by aerospace market research and strategy firm I2, indicates there is a sufficient demand to proceed with development of the company’s proposed supersonic business jet (SSBJ). Aerion publicly unveiled its SSBJ program last October at the NBAA Convention in Las Vegas, saying the natural-laminar-flow-wing aircraft could be in service by 2011.
The recently-released report shows a market for between 220 and 260 Aerion SSBJs over a 10-year period with approximately 20 percent of sales coming from the fractional market. Production over a 20-year program life could exceed 500 units, Aerion noted.
FASTFORWARD: For Aerion, the dream of developing the world’s first supersonic business jet, would linger for another 16 years, until the company closed in May 2021. At the time, despite an $11.5 billion backlog for the AS2 SSBJ, Aerion said that “in the current financial environment, it has proven hugely challenging to close on the scheduled and necessary large new capital requirements to finalize the transition of the AS2 into production.” The company had decided on a final design that had been proved out in wind tunnel tests, dozens of patents had been secured, and agreements firmed with major suppliers. Months before the announcement, Aerion broke ground on a massive $300 million headquarters complex in Melbourne, Florida, and teased a follow-on near-hypersonic AS3 airliner. Yet, facing a dramatically ramped-up spend rate as it transitioned from design firm to aircraft developer, the company decided its operation was not sustainable and pulled the plug, leaving nearly $100 million in outstanding claims to stand against the sale of its largely intellectual property.
