This paper discusses the design objectives of and a development cycle for a second-generation supersonic transport (SST). The environmental impact of technological advancement and the rapidly changing economic market produce a wide divergence of possible programs for the 1985 time period. Areas of technological advancement that can move in the direction of the second-generation design objectives will be included. Some of these advances require development of a methodology to be able to reduce the technical risk of application to a commercial SST and some require exploratory development.