Texas billionaire’s supersonic-jet dream dies as Aerion folds

Aerion, the supersonic-jet developer founded by Texas billionaire Robert Bass and backed by Boeing, said it’s ceasing operations after failing to secure enough money to start building the aircraft. Raising the large investment needed to move the AS2 private jet from design to production has been “hugely challenging,” Aerion said Friday. The company had said in March that output of the first planes would start in 2023 at a factory in Melbourne, Florida, with the first commercial delivery expected in 2027. The shutdown ends Aerion’s ambitions to help revive civilian supersonic travel for the first time since the 2003 demise of the Concorde. The company had brought in Boeing, signed up General Electric to supply engines and amassed more than $11b in orders, including a recent deal for 20 planes from NetJets, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Aerospace manufacturers have been hammered by the Covid-19 pandemic as passengers avoided flying and airlines stopped buying planes. Boeing, already reeling from the grounding of its 737 Max because of two deadly crashes before the pandemic, was hit especially hard. Boeing had pledged to help with engineering and manufacturing when it announced “significant” backing for Aerion in 2019. But the planemaker pared its funding in futuristic aircraft and dissolved its Boeing NeXt investment unit last year as it faced one of the worst financial crises in its history.<br/>