This week on Fat and Explain we look at the Boeing Sonic Cruiser

The Boeing Sonic Cruiser was designed to be a subsonic or transonic aircraft flying just under the speed of sound, around 10 to 20% faster than a normal jet aircraft we have today .

Boeing 's main target market was the transatlantic London to New York route.

The project was cancelled just over a year and a half after its reveal.

The Boeing Sonic Cruiser project only lasted 18 months .

It was initially pitched to airlines leading up to the Paris Air Show in 2001 as a radical alternative to the stable of current jet offerings.

The aircraft would have been able to carry 200 to 250 passengers in a range between 6000 to 10,000 nautical miles .

But as you'll see in a moment, this faster Sonic fantasy was just a fantasy.

The Boeing 765 was based off research done in part with NASA on a future high speed civil transport concept made to carry 100 passengers close to the speed of sound to 6000 nautical miles .

Boeing assumed that people would be willing to pay a premium to get somewhere a little bit faster.

But remember, at the time the Concorde was still flying and struggling with capacity.