Supersonic flight may soon be possible again, within a decade in fact, if the founder of US tech company Boom Technology delivers on his promise.
The era of commercial supersonic flight ended when the Concorde crashed soon after taking off from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport on an scheduled flight to New York on July 25, 2000. The crash, which left no survivors, was the only fatal accident in the Concorde’s 27 year-long operational history. That accident put an abrupt, and somewhat unjust end to commercial supersonic flight.
But now, US Boom’s founder and CEO Blake Scholl says that his company will deliver an aircraft capable of delivering supersonic speeds within ten years. According to him, several leading airlines have already signed up to it and ordered 76 of the as-of-yet not built supersonic machines.
If US Boom delivers, flying time between Paris and New York for instance will be almost cut in half, from the current 7 hours to about 3.5. And you could get from San Francisco to Tokyo in about 5 hours, instead of the current 11.
But supersonic flight will not come in cheap. With a price tag of about $200m per aircraft, a business class will cost you upwards of $5000.
The new aircraft is not scheduled to enter service until 2023 at least, but a smaller prototype will take to the skies later this year.