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An aviation start-up in the US is aiming to build a mini supersonic jet capable of becoming a next generation Concorde, able to fly between London and New York in just over three hours.
Boom Technology has unveiled the XB-1, or “Baby Boom” as it likes to call it, a small supersonic jet it says can travel faster than Concorde ever could and turn the current seven-hour flight across the Atlantic to New York into one that lasts three hours and 15 minutes.
It will do this by travelling at more than 1,400mph.
A prototype of the jet, which currently only has room for two people including the pilot, has been unveiled in Denver, and Boom aims to have the final version ready for passengers by 2020.
The other key point of the plan is to make the Baby Boom affordable, with Boom saying tickets each way will be $2,500 (£2,000) for New York to London flights.
That’s good value when a one-way ticket to New York in first class on a regular plane can cost as much as £8,000 today.
Boom says it hopes to start test flights in 2017.
There’s plenty of experience at the company, with several certified pilots on the board as well as advisers from Nasa and Virgin America.
