A supersonic jet capable of delivering passengers from London to New York in under four hours could be used to link hundreds of cities in an expansion of ultra-fast flights that would dwarf the impact of Concorde on long-haul travel, the man leading the project has said. Ambitious plans outlined by Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, would see the option of supersonic travel extended to vast swathes of the travelling public.
Under his projection as many as 2,000 of the planes could be used on 500 routes crisscrossing the planet. “We are focused on accelerating long transoceanic trips,” he told The Independent from the 2018 Farnborough Airshow. Watch: Boom unveils XB-1 supersonic passenger plane prototype (Provided by EasyVoyage)
“We want to get the economy of the plane down so that anybody who flies can fly fast.”
The company is promising future fares just shy of £2,000 for a one-way ticket from London to New York - broadly comparable with existing business class seat prices on conventional subsonic aircraft.
Importantly, the journey will take three-and-a-quarter hours - halving the current journey time. “This is not a private jet for the ultra-wealthy,” he insisted, adding that high speed travel was becoming a priority for passengers.
A demonstrator jet will take to the skies next year to test the technology before the company hopes to carry its first paying passenger in 2025.
Flight tests of the Denver, Colorado-based XB-1 prototype are to be conducted from the Mojave Air & Space Port in Southern California. The 55-seat aircraft, which is powered by three turbojet engines, has already undergone more than 1,000 simulated wind tunnel tests.
The project already has the backing of two airlines Virgin and Japan Airlines with two more unnamed carriers waiting in the wings, but concerns remain about the financial viability of supersonic travel and the environmental impact of ferrying people at high speed around the planet.
