Supersonic transport

A supersonic transport or SST is a civil aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. The first generation of SST's produced only one commercial aircraft, Concorde. The only other design built in quantity was the TU-144[?].

There have been many other designs that have failed to reach production, including the Boeing 2707-200[?], the Sud Aviation Super-Caravelle[?], the Armstrong-Whitworth M-Wing[?] and the Lockheed L-2000[?]. Current design proposals are sometimes grouped together as ASTs (Advanced supersonic transport). Sub-orbital airliners based on concepts such as HOTOL have also been proposed. Practicalities of demand, cost, construction difficulties and environmental impact have, and continue to, limit SST designs from becoming reality.