NY-London In 3hr 15min On New Supersonic Jet

British entrepreneur Richard Branson has unveiled the prototype for a new supersonic aircraft that promises to have air travel times, and send passengers between London and New York in three hours and 15 minutes (normally a 7 hour flight) or LA to Sydney in 6 hours and 45 minutes (15 hour trip). The XB-1 has been nicknamed ‘Baby Boom’, claimed to be among the world’s fastest civil aircraft ever made, and promises to give passengers “affordable” supersonic travel. While the first commercial flight is not expected until 2023, the price of a flight between London and New York is currently set at £2,500 (approx. Rs 2.12 Lakh as on 16 November). The new aircraft has a cruising speed of Mach 2.2 or 1,451mph (approx. 2,335 kilometres per hour), which is 10% faster than Concorde’s speed of Mach 2 (the speed of sound is measured as Mach 1), and 2.6 times faster than other airliners. A typical Boeing 747 goes at about 560mph (901kmph) and takes eight hours or so to fly the 3,459 miles (approx. 5,567km) across the Atlantic. The new planes are set to carry 40 passengers at a time. There hasn’t been a supersonic commercial jet in operation since the Concorde jet, constructed by French aerospace company Aerospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation, was retired after 27 years of service in 2003. Despite other aerospace companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin developing their own supersonic spacecraft, Virgin and startup Boom are hoping to beat the competition to market as the aircraft uses existing technology that has already been approved by regulators. Boom’s development of the new aircraft has been done in partnership with Dranson’s Spaceship Company, which is attached to Virgin Galactic. The company will provide engineering and manufacturing services to Boom, in addition to test flight support and operations. Branson has signed an option to buy the first 10 airframes. The subsonic test flight of the XB-1 will take place east of Denver, Colorado (US), while the supersonic test flights will take place near Edwards Air force Base in Southern California.