SONIC OF THE SKIES

Concorde competitor set to fly from as early as 2023

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Picture by Aerion

We all loved Concorde and since the aircraft retiring in 2003 , no aircraft has filled that gap. But the wait may soon be over, Aerion is bidding to be the manufacturers of the "New Concorde".

AS2 will be a supersonic Biz jet that's estimated to travel at 1,400mph and is hoped to reach Mach 1.8, Making it faster than Concorde when travelling to New York from London or London to New York. The engineers have worked with Lockheed Martin on the project.

Travelling is as popular as ever and getting places quicker is important to customers these days, with Aerion promoting the cruising speed is 3x more than the normal cruising speed of a modern day airliner, this will make it faster than Concorde by 30mph. The owners of the firm think this will be a "springboard" to larger Supersonic birds in the sky.

Aerion are the latest to throw their hat in the supersonic ring after leading names such has NASA, Airbus and Virgin are attempting to complete the near impossible task - As of right now, there's very little competition for the AS2. However; this summer the US giant Boeing revealed a concept of a 4,000mph "Hypersonic Airliner" which could be operational by 2030.

Article by Kian McVicker from Miles To Go - Aviation Blogging