Boeing Sonic Cruiser

The Boeing Sonic Cruiser was a concept jet airliner with a delta wing and canard configuration, distinguished from conventional airliners by a high-subsonic, transonic cruising speed of up to Mach 0.98. Boeing publicly unveiled it on 29 March 2001 as rapid point-to-point travel for 200 to 250 passengers, a different approach from the very large hub-and-spoke capacity of the Airbus A380. Airlines generally preferred lower operating costs over higher speed, and Boeing ended the project in December 2002, shifting to the slower but more fuel-efficient 7E7, later named the 787 Dreamliner. Much of the research, including carbon fiber reinforced plastic for the fuselage and wings and bleedless engines, was applied to the 787.