This Slick Supersonic Airliner Hopes to Succeed Where the Concorde Failed

But you’ll have to wait till 2023.

We may finally be getting a replacement for the Concorde for supersonic passenger air travel in 2023, thanks to a mach 2.2 airliner design from Boom Technologies.

Colorado’s Boom Technologies aims to disrupt air travel in the manner that SpaceX and Tesla are challenging the space and automotive industries—by making the previously impractical idea of quick overseas travel affordable.

Boom is preparing the XB-1 one-third scale technology demonstrator for test flight later this year. The company has orders for 25 of its supersonic airliners, including ten plane for Richard Branson‘s Virgin Group, which is also providing Boom with engineering and manufacturing services as well as providing support for test flight operations.

The supersonic airliner promises to trim New York-to-London travel time to 3 hours and 15 minutes thanks to mach 2.2 speed which will be 10 percent faster than the late, lamented Concorde.

Boom’s design is for a 40-seat plane, making the cabin about the same size as a regional jet’s, with less than half the Concorde’s 100-passenger capacity.

Which, of course, means that flights will be as exclusive as they are quick.

h/t: SAE