1.  Thanks to supersonic travel, busy executives can attend meetings in New York and be back in London the same day.

2.  Glamorous though supersonic travel seemed to be, it was also so noisy that most governments banned it over their countries.

3.  If commercial supersonic travel has a future, it is more likely to be in the executive jet than the commercial carrier.

4.  In the wake of the recent Concorde crash in Paris, the designer said his days of supersonic travel are over.

5.  Jean-Claude Gayssot, the French transport minister, also said the measures did not necessarily imply the end of supersonic travel.

6.  Supersonic travel has not been profitable in Europe, and U.S. aircraft makers years ago abandoned plans to make such aircraft.

7.  But some passengers find their first experience of supersonic travel unsettling, describing takeoff as seemingly vertical and the resulting G-forces more than a little daunting.