Sonic Cruiser Creates Boom in Expectations for SBJ

Boeing's radical and attractive Sonic Cruiser will so change the public's idea of what airplanes should look like that it will pave the way for a supersonic business jet, believes Richard Aboulafia, chief aerospace analyst at the Virginia-based Teal Group.

An SBJ, says Aboulafia, is "just a matter of time, for market and technical reasons. Boeing's Sonic Cruiser proposal, if it materializes, will make the SBJ both inevitable and necessary." Top executives, he believes. will demand something faster and better.