Reviving these planes during a time of rising discontent with the unbridled growth of air travel has already prompted pushback.

“Bringing back supersonic transport made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up,” said Greg Lindsay, director of applied research at the urban-focused nonprofit NewCities and a co-author of “Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next.”

“It’s a distillation of the promise of air travel that we can be like gods and travel the earth and be everywhere at once. But why do you need to straddle the earth in a single day?”

Drone Deliveries

Forty-five countries either allow or will soon allow drone deliveries, according to a survey by the industry website Unmanned Airspace. But the technology is far more advanced than the systems needed to control the airspace.

“There is complexity in that there are many vehicles flying at the same time,” said Isabel Del Pozo de Poza, director of unmanned traffic management for Airbus. “Drones are automated; you cannot speak to them. Air traffic management still relies on voice communications.”

Despite an impression that soon everyone will be receiving purchases via drone, the present technology is more suited for business-to-business applications, deliveries in hard-to-access locations, and when speed is a priority, said Michael Zahra, president and chief executive of Drone Delivery Canada.

“In South Texas and South Louisiana, there are 3,000 oil rigs off the coast. They have to get parts and supplies from shore to rig and from oil rig to oil rig,” Mr. Zahra said. A drone is “cheaper than a helicopter and more reliable than Bob in his boat.”