Boeing is currently working on a hypersonic aircraft that will be able toย fly passengers from New York to London in as little as two hours.
Compared to conventional commercial flights today, that would cut flying time by aboutย fiveย hours.
The aerospace company offeredย an early look of the passenger-carrying hypersonicย concept at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Atlanta this week.
But it takes time to engineer an aircraft capable ofย traveling at Mach 5ย —ย fiveย times the speed of sound or 3,800 miles (6,174 km) an hour — that’s safe enough for human travel.
Boeing says it will be anotherย 20 to 30 years before a hypersonic passenger vehicle will be airborne.
By comparison, the retired Concorde was a supersonic aircraft thatย traveledย at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. A flight from New Yorkย to London took less than four hours.
Last year, Boston-based group Spike Aerospace completed a round of test flights on a prototype aircraft that will eventually be able to reach cruising altitudes of Mach 1.6, ferrying passengers between New York and Tokyo in six to seven hours.
Spike Aerospace says they hope to launch the commercialย supersonicย aircraft by 2023.