Boom’s SST design would be smaller than Concorde. (Image: Boom)
Roundtrip from New York to London for $5,000, with a 3-1/2 hour flight time in each direction? That’s the goal Sir Richard Branson has in mind for his new partnership with a U.S.-based company working on a supersonic passenger jet.
Branson, the founder of Virgin Group and Virgin Atlantic Airways, this week said his Virgin Galactic subsidiary —which hopes to sell space flights – is entering into a partnership with the Colorado start-up Boom to bring about the next generation of SSTs.
He said the Spaceship Company – the technical division of Virgin Galactic – will work with Boom by providing help with engineering, manufacturing expertise and flight tests. Branson and Boom CEO Blake Scholl said they hope to launch commercial flights with the new aircraft by 2023.
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Rendering of a passenger seat on the planned SST. (Image: Boom)
The proposed new aircraft would have only 45 to 50 seats – about half as many as the Concorde, which stopped flying 20 years ago. Scholl said the aircraft could be economical on hundreds of routes, but would initially focus on New York-London, Tokyo-San Francisco and Los Angeles-Sydney.
The new partnership between Virgin Galactic and Boom represents an increased commitment to the project from Branson, who earlier this year signed an option to buy the first 10 airframes produced by the manufacturer. Branson cast his lot with Boom rather than Boeing or Lockheed-Martin, which are also working on SST prototypes, because Boom plans to use existing technology that won’t require any additional regulatory approval and thus could start operating sooner.
The proposed aircraft would reach a velocity of 2.2 times the speed of sound and would cruise at 60,000 feet – high enough to see the curvature of the planet.
Would you fly it? Please leave your comments below.
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