Oh for the glory days of travel, when the seats were bigger, the food was better, and you could jet across the Atlantic in less than three hours. Since the 2003 end of Concorde, of course, flitting quickly across the Atlantic has been a thing of the past. Flights between London and New York take around eight hours, or closer to seven in the other direction. The record currently stands at just under five hours from New York to London, pushed on by a favorable jetstream.
’s Glenn Research Center suggested that there are already “potential passenger markets… in about 50 established routes.” These routes were confined to transoceanic ones, including over the North Atlantic and the Pacific, because nations including the US ban overland supersonic flight. However, ’s Advanced Air Vehicles Program will now move to its next research phase for high speed travel, contracting companies to develop designs and “explore air travel possibilities, outline risks and challenges, and identify needed technologies to make Mach 2-plus travel a reality,” the agency said. There will be two teams working on the research: one headed by Boeing, the other by Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems.
’s Hypersonic Technology Project, adding that “It’s important to innovate responsibly.” In July, Lockheed Martin completed the build of