The return of ultra-fast air travel has taken a step closer to reality with Virgin Group announcing it has signed a deal to buy 10 supersonic jets from a company called Boom.
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Boom founder Blake Scholl, a pilot and former Amazon executive, is already working on a prototype of the jet, which would travel at speeds higher than 2300 km/h (more than 100 km/h faster than the Concorde's top speed).
It would allow passengers to fly from New York to London in under 3.5 hours.
"We are talking about the first supersonic jet people can afford to fly," Scholl, told the Guardian. "This isn't science fiction, we are actually doing this."
Scholl claims his jet will succeed where the Concorde failed because flights will be more affordable, citing a price of about $US5000 ($A6658) return – a price comparable to a business class fare on a standard airline.
Richard Branson's Virgin Group has also reportedly invested $US2 billion in another company – an unnamed London airline – to develop supersonic planes.
Boom's small team includes former engineers from Boeing and Lockheed Martin and aims to have its prototype completed by the end of 2017.
The revival of fast, long-haul travel has been the dream of many since the end of the Concorde service. Various projects have considered ways to increase the speed of passenger aircraft.
Last year, Branson told Traveller.com.au that he expected that within his children's lifetime passengers would be able to fly from Sydney to London in less than two hours (see video above) through sub-orbital space flight like that being developed by his Virgin Galactic company.
Virgin Galactic's initial purpose has been focused on space tourism, with many wealthy would-be astronauts forking out $US200,000 for a joy flight, but Branson indicated ultra-fast travel across the globe was on the cards.
"At Virgin Galactic we've got 500 wonderful engineers there and they are very keen to move Virgin Galactic into point-to-point travel at tremendous speed," he said.
NASA and Lockheed Martin have worked on designs for a supersonic craft dubbed "Son of Concorde". One of the supersonic Concorde's big drawbacks was its inability to fly at speed over land because of the sonic booms created.
Lockheed Martin is working on ways to reduce the impact of sonic booms.
A group of Concorde enthusiasts has also announced it has a plan to get the aircraft flying again.
Hypersonic technology, which has been tested in the Australian outback, aims to develop aircraft that can fly at Mach 8 (8600km/h).
But Scholl says his plane is "no bull---t" as it is based on existing technology – not hypersonic or other ultra-fast technologies that could be 30 years away from actually becoming a reality.
"I started this because I was sad that I never got to fly on Concorde. I waited but no one was doing it, so I decided to," Scholl said. "Ultimately I want people to be able to get anywhere in the world in five hours for $100."
