Our Automologist MAC welcomes the return of supersonic flight. And who wouldn’t want to fly in one of this…
Back in 2003, the age of supersonic air travel came to a fiery end in Paris as an Air France Concorde burst into flames as it was taking off, and crashed. This resulted in all of the slightly aging supersonic Concordes that were operated by British Airways and Air France being withdrawn from service and unceremoniously retired.
Now, though, the dream of sipping martinis as you break Mach 2 across the Atlantic Ocean could be back on, as we get to relive the 60s’ supersonic dream in an aircraft that appear even zippier than the Concorde. To create the original Concorde, it required the Governments of the UK and France to work together to make it happen.
This time, however, there will be no governmental involvement—just the desire of one maverick businessman by the name of Richard Branson, who, with the aid of startup company Boom Technology, aim to develop a passenger jet that will travel at Mach 2.2 or twice the speed of sound! This of course would knock about fifteen minutes off the average time of the old Concorde.
Thus, and if you so desired, you could have an English Breakfast in London, followed by a New York hot dog, and finish the day with dinner back in London, presumably having sipped a few very fast martinis in between.
The Boom Jet is no flight of fantasy either—it is already almost a reality. Designed to carry 55 passengers, the new supersonic aircraft is actually scheduled for tests in 2020, and a price for London to New York flights has already been published. Okay, at US$2500, some may find it a tad on the expensive side, but heck, just recently I got the courtesy bus around London Heathrow and spied a forlorn Concorde parked outside the BA hangers, and rued the fact that I had never flown on such a legend. I can now once again put supersonic flight onto my bucket list….
Image credits: Boom