By the mid-1980s, it was recognised that Concorde, the first long-serving supersonic transport, had achieved a niche level of profitability on the busiest Transatlantic routes, but that the airliner had not attracted the widespread use that had been hoped, in part due to political complications and poor economic situation following the 1973 oil crisis.
[1] Furthermore, during this era, various organisations were undertaking projects, such as the National Aero-Space Plane in the United States, which were aimed at competing with Concorde as next generation supersonic transports.
[3] A primary objective of this study was to determine not only the technical possibility of such an airliner, but also its commercial viability and compliance with environmental standards, particularly those pertaining to noise and pollution.
Adopting the Mach 2 limit also meant it was relatively easy to compare emerging design concepts and the real life experience garnered from operating Concorde, which had attained 15,000 flight hours fleetwide at this point.
[3] Much attention was paid to the wing and landing gear as to reduce drag; boundary layer control to achieve and maintain laminar flow was also investigated.