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How Concordes Work

Future SSTs

One concept of the National Aerospace Plane
Photo courtesy NASA

For a time, it seemed as though the air travel industry was headed in the direction of more supersonic options. For example, President Ronald Reagan called for a program to develop a hyperspace transport or National Aerospace Plane capable of going from New York to Tokyo in two hours.

Another concept of the National Aerospace Plane
Photo courtesy NASA

Such planes would have to enter outer space in a suborbital flight. They would have to develop the air-breathing rocket engines necessary to achieve the appropriate speeds and deal with the intense heat of re-entry, much like the space shuttle.

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However, none of these options ever became commercially viable, making the Concorde and the the Tu-144 the only SSTs that made commercial flights. For more information on SSTs and related topics, check out the links below.

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Technical Information

Other SSTs

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