Virgin Galactic, an aerospace and space travel company, has entered the supersonic jet race with Lockheed-Martin, and US start-up Boom Supersonic.
The spaceship company has revealed designs for a supersonic passenger plane capable of flying three times the speed of sound. The supersonic jet will travel at Mach 3, or about 2300 mph. At that speed, it could fly from London to New York in about 90 minutes or London to Sydney in just five hours.
Virgin Galactic said that it has been working on a high-speed aircraft design and has signed an agreement with Rolls-Royce to develop the engines. Noting that Rolls-Royce also built the engines that propelled the Concorde into the Mach numbers, slashing the travel time from New York to London roughly in half.
Virgin Galactic’s Chief Space Officer George Whitesides said a “mission concept review” of the supersonic airline design is complete, and engineering will proceed to refine the design “of a high speed aircraft, which we envision as blending safe and reliable commercial travel with an unrivaled customer experience.”
The delta-wing aircraft will have a capacity to carry from nine to 19 people, flying above 60,000 feet. The company said the interior can be customized, including business or first-class seating. Virgin Galactic says the jet could also “lead the way” towards the use of sustainable aviation fuel, which could favorably impact the rest of business aviation.