With the unceremonious retirement of Concorde in 2003, it looked as though the age of the supersonic jet was over. Anyway, who needed to be sipping martinis on a 3.5 hour flight to New York, when you could do spreadsheets en route, with nothing but a laptop and a latte?
Now, reports an article from Live Science, the supersonic 60s appear to be happening all over — only this time the planes are even zippier than Concorde. And it's no surprise who's behind it.
Richard Branson — with the aid of startup Boom Technology — aims to develop a passenger jet that travels at Mach 2.2 AKA twice the speed of sound.
That would mean a flight from London to NYC would take just take just 3.5 hours — knocking 15 minutes off the old Concorde average. It would also mean you could eat a fresh bagel from Brick Lane for lunch, another for lunch in Brooklyn, and then a third in Brick Lane for dinner (OK the timings would be weird but still).
The Boom jet, which would carry 55 passengers, is targeted for tests in 2020. Those 55 passengers might want to borrow the company card — flights are estimated to cost $2,500... each way. We'll take that martini after all...
Read the full article on LiveScience.
