It’s hard to catch the attention of an audience confronted with 24 back-to-back startup and product pitches, but Exosonic managed to do just that. At The Phocuswright Conference Summit, Norris Tie, CEO of Exosonic wowed attendees with his vision of developing a fleet of supersonic passenger aircrafts with a muted sonic boom, capable of flying commercially over land and water. And in the process, winning the OAG Award for Innovation.
During an interview with WiT, Tie explained his goal of accelerating the pace of air travel literally, by engineering significantly faster aircraft that could cut journey times by half. It is still in the concept-design stage with the first commercial flight targeted for 2030.
“We’re confident it will start as a niche market… and we need to figure out how to reduce fuel consumption, we would have to move away from jet-fuel based systems [and look at alternative fuels],” said Tie. “It’s a little bit about sustainability… and the cost. When you bring in new technology, it’s going to be really expensive.”
It will likely be a significantly more expensive purchase for airlines to add this kind of aircraft to their fleet. With so many currently struggling financially (around 19 airlines went out of business in 2019 alone), it will arguably be difficult for them to commit the high initial investment required. While first-mover advantage could yield benefits for a forward-thinking airline, it must first be a financially feasible investment.
“We need to talk to airlines to understand how they would operate the vehicle and incorporate it into their business… we’d want to make sure airlines can operate the aircraft profitably.”
That being said, Tie believes that there will be a strong advantage for airlines that adopt early. “[They] could steal market share… if [we] can prove there is a lot of value for the first airline adopter and see a shift of corporate travellers to that carrier.”
He explained that Exosonic aircrafts could help FSCs regain their competitive edge against LCCs, by providing faster flights over greater distances, coupled with a business class experience. As for the ideal airline customer – “Any airline with a larger premium customer base would be one we’d target.”
Looking back on the short-lived glamour of the Concorde era (1969-2003), Tie said it should be used as a cautionary tale. “It was ahead of its time – [we] had only just recently broken the sound barrier… but there’s been a lot of tech progress since.”
Nevertheless, Exosonic wants to recreate the VIP experience that it mastered so well. “The mysticism behind it was who you were sitting next to… depending on the cabin layout, it could be a novel model.” Once commercially available, Tie suggested that passenger seats should not retail for more than a typical business class airfare.
Exosonic is being established at a time where regulators like the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) are becoming more bullish and adapting current regulations to enable supersonic aircraft testing. Meanwhile, NASA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) are researching and developing technology in the space.
“NASA is not in the business of competing against the commercial industry, so they would need someone to adopt their technology to bring it to market and we’re hoping that can be us,” said Tie.
Competitors in the space include Boom Supersonic, developing an overwater-only supersonic aircraft (without muting capability), Aerion Supersonic, and SpaceX BFR for intercontinental rocket travel. “The most direct competitor is Boom… but they’re not designing to mute [it]. They would have to start over to mute the boom, [which] would create a big re-engineering problem.”
As for funding, Exosonic has bootstrapped so far but is currently open to investment. “We currently make money from government grants to help with research and development.”
Given the decade-long development timeline Tie is forecasting, he reckons it will take a strong-willed investor that truly believes in the vision of the company. “Many investors follow the traditional model of 5-7 years, [ruling us] out of most funds. We’d need long-term investors [with] evergreen funds.”