NASA supersonic plane could fly New York to London in 90 minutes

Since Concorde, the most successful commercial supersonic airliner, was retired in 2003, speedy transatlantic flights have been a thing of the past. Flights between London and New York typically take around eight hours.

But now the idea of supersonic travel is being mooted by NASA, which calculates that a New York-London flight could take just 90 minutes in the future.

NASA's supersonic passenger jet could fly from new york to london in 90 minutes image 1 — NASA's X-59 aircraft aims to reduce acoustic noise to a minimum. Photo: CNN

The space agency confirmed in a blog post about its “high-speed strategy” that it has recently been studying whether commercial flights at speeds of Mach 4 — more than 3,000 miles per hour — could take off in the future.

Research by NASA's Glenn Research Center suggests there is already a "potential passenger market with about 50 established routes." These routes are limited to transoceanic routes, including the North Atlantic and Pacific , because countries including the US ban supersonic flights over land.

However, NASA is developing a “quiet” hypersonic aircraft, called the X-59, as part of a mission called Quest. The agency hopes that the new aircraft could eventually change those rules quickly, with planes flying at speeds of Mach 2 and Mach 4 (1,535–3,045 miles per hour).

The Concorde's top speed was Mach 2.04, or 1,354 miles per hour. A jet traveling at Mach 4 would be capable of making the trip across the Atlantic in just 90 minutes.

Research similar to that conducted a decade ago shaped the development of the X-59 hypersonic aircraft, according to Lori Ozoroski, project manager for NASA's Commercial Hypersonic Technology Project.

The next phase will also consider “safety, efficiency, economic and societal considerations,” said Mary Jo Long-Davis, director of NASA’s Hypersonic Technology Project, adding that “it is important to innovate responsibly.”

In July, Lockheed Martin completed construction of NASA's X-59 test plane, which is designed to minimize noise while traveling at super high speeds, in hopes of making supersonic flight over land a reality.

Ground tests and the first test flight are scheduled for later this year, with NASA aiming to have enough data to hand over to US regulators by 2027.

Mai Van (according to CNN)

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