Aerion Supersonic, which planned to make silent, fast business jets, is shutting down

Aerion Supersonic, which had plans to build silent business jets that would travel twice as fast as most commercial airplanes, is shutting down operations. First reported by Florida Today, Aerion, which had backing from Boeing, said it was unable to raise the money to build its AS2 supersonic jet.

“The AS2 supersonic business jet program meets all market, technical, regulatory and sustainability requirements and the market for a new supersonic segment of general aviation has been validated with $11.2 billion in sales backlog for the AS2,” the company said in an statement emailed to The Verge on Saturday.

“However, in the current financial environment, it has proven hugely challenging to close on the scheduled and necessary large new capital requirements to finalize the transition of the AS2 into production. Given these conditions the Aerion Corporation is now taking the appropriate steps in consideration of this ongoing financial environment.”

Aerion CEO Tom Vice said in January 2020 that the AS2 would likely cost about $4 billion for the company to develop, CNBC reported. At that time, it had already spent $1 billion to develop the AS2’s engine. And in April 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Aerion was relocating its headquarters from Reno, Nevada to Melbourne, Florida, at a plant to be built at Orlando Melbourne International Airport.

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