Startup Plans to Offer ‘Affordable’ Supersonic Jet Travel

A new startup plans to pick up where the ill-fated commercial supersonic jet Concorde left off 13 years ago, plotting “affordable” flights at a speed of 1,451 mph, allowing travelers to effectively commute across an ocean.

Boom, founded by former Amazon executive Blake Scholl, aims to offer flights from “New York to London in three-and-a-half hours for $5,000,” Scholl tells the Guardian, comparing that cost to a business class ticket. He says his company will succeed where Concorde failed by creating planes with fewer seats that are therefore easier to fill. If successful, that means passengers could commute across the Atlantic for a day of work: “Imagine departing from New York at 6 am, and landing at Heathrow by 2:30 pm London time,” he said. “You’ll be able to make afternoon meetings, you can stay until 9:30 pm, have a full productive day, and [be] back in New York at 8 pm [local time] so you can tuck your kids into bed.”

Scholl plans to have built and tested a prototype by the end of 2017, and hopes to begin commercial flights in a few years’ time.

[The Guardian]