Air Force One Going Supersonic?
Air Force One is a flying fortress. There’s not much the jumbo jet can do (don’t tell that to President James Marshall) in mid-air, hence the reason why every time you see it in flight, there’s a fleet of fighter jets flying alongside it. But all of that could soon change. In 2020, the U.S. Air Force Presidential and Executive Airlift Directorate signed contracts with three different aero-manufacturers doing innovative things – Boom Supersonic, Exosonic, and Hermeus. Boom specifically, has their Overture in the pipeline and claims to have an airliner capable of cruising at Mach 1.7 and can travel about 4,900 miles on a tank of sustainable aviation fuel. Of course with speed, you’ve got to go light, which means there’s going to be some sacrifices to be made. Sayonara presidential suite. Check out how Air Force One is going to potentially pull this off in Jalopnik’s entire article, here.