This Company Wants To Fly You Anywhere In The World In 4 Hours For $100

Source: Thrillist, Caitlyn Hitt
Photo: Courtesy of Boom Supersonic

Boom Supersonic hopes to revolutionize air travel by making it faster and cheaper.

Imagine all the places you’d go if you could get there faster and cheaper. Not long ago, a company called Concorde, which existed from 1976 until 2003, dreamed of revolutionizing travel aboard supersonic jets, but operations were costly and not great for the environment. A new company has emerged with a similar goal, but hopes to do it better.

Boom Supersonic emerged as a frontrunner in high-speed travel last October, when the company rolled out an aircraft called the XB1 to demonstrate the type of experience it hopes to bring to everyday travelers. CEO Blake Scholl told CNN Travel that Boom Supersonic wants to have its aircraft, Overture, in the air by 2026, though the company’s own website says passenger flights likely won’t begin until 2030.

Per the company’s site, the plane is designed to seat 65 to 88 people and will operate on more than 500 routes. The Overture travels at Mach-2.2 speeds (that’s more than two times as fast as a normal plane), meaning you’ll get wherever you’re going in a flash.Boom Supersonic’s aircraft could get passengers from New York to London in a little over three hours. It could also get people from Los Angeles to Sydney in about eight hours. Basically, it would completely change the way people travel.

“Either we fail or we change the world,” Scholl told the outlet. “The barrier of time is what keeps us apart. We believe it’s deeply important to break the time barrier, more so than the sound barrier.”

All that sounds great, but prohibitively expensive for the average person, right? Wrong. Scholl told CNN that Boom Supersonic’s other goal is to keep costs low so just about anyone can afford to get from place to place for a reasonable price. While Concorde was charging about $12,000 for a round trip before it shuttered, which is more like $20,000 today, Boom Supersonic is looking to keep prices closer to $100. Then again, it doesn’t expect that to happen until two or three generations of aircraft from now, per the report.

Price isn’t the only thing Boom Supersonic aims to have on the now-defunct Concorde. Scholl told CNN the company wants its aircraft to be 100% carbon-neutral. That means you could jet set and feel better about it because you’re not negatively impacting the environment. Now that’s major.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/boom-supersonic-4-hours-flights-around-the-world-for-100