‘Son of Concorde' jet that could fly from London to NYC in 3.5 hours steps closer to reality as major ban is lifted
"Son of Concorde" maker
4
Boom managed its first supersonic flight in January
Credit: Boom Supersonic
4
Company is now making supersonic airplanes for everyday passengers
Credit: Boom Supersonic
4
Tight restrictions on supersonic flights have been in place due to the loud sonic boom created by the shock waves from a flying object travelling faster than the speed of sound.
"America once led the world in supersonic aviation, but decades of stifling regulations grounded progress," the White House said.
"This Order removes regulatory barriers so that U.S. companies can dominate supersonic flight once again."
To hit supersonic speeds, an airplane needs to travel at 768 miles per hour.
Read more about flying
But Boom Technology has been working on a jet that has no audible sonic boom.
The firm managed to make its XB-1 test jet fly faster than the speed of sound for the first time in January this year.
Writing on X, the company welcomed the latest move, saying: "Thank you, President Trump, for unlocking the future of faster and quieter travel.
"This presidential action comes after a bipartisan group of key Congressional leaders introduced the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act on May 14, 2025.
Most read in Tech
"The legislation calls on the FAA to revise the regulation prohibiting supersonic flight over land."
After finishing tests with XB-1 in January, Boom is now focused on building a plane suitable for passengers called Overture.
Boom 'son of Concorde' flies supersonic for first time
Some 130 aircraft pre-orders have already been made by the likes of American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines.
The executive order does come with a set of rules that the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been directed to impose.
An interim "noise-based certification standard" must be established that considers "community acceptability, economic reasonableness, and technological feasibility".
Why did the Concorde fail?
CONCORDE was the supersonic passenger jet considered the ultimate luxury in air travel.
Air France and British Airways announced they would be
The plane had its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976, so was retired after 27 years of service and 50,000 flights.
Several reasons led to the decision to retire Concorde.
Air France and British Airways cited low passenger numbers and high maintenance costs.
By the early noughties, the planes were outdated and expensive to run, despite being incredibly advanced when they were first introduced almost three decades previously.
The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 majorly impacted passenger numbers, as people opted not to fly.
Passenger numbers also fell after an
The disaster
The plane ran over a small
It was also the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer.
Image credit: Alamy
Trump was presented with a miniature model of Overture earlier this year from Boom Technology's CEO.
He suggested that Boom should manufacture Air Force One - the President's personal plane - and made a dig at China President
"Air Fore Once should be supersonic. Xi [President of China] can keep his 747-8," he wrote.
4
Trump posed with a miniature model of Boom Technology's Overture jet
Credit: x/bscholl
Supersonic and Hypersonic Jets
There are several types of hypersonic and supersonic jets. A breakdown of what's been happening in the industry and what's expected in the coming years.
Talon-A
Built by Stratolaunch
Reported speeds of Mach 5
The first test flight conducted in 2024
Built by Nasa and Lockheed Martin
Predicted max speeds of Mach 1.4
The first test flight in 2024 - but subject to delays
Built by Venus Aerospace and Velontra
Predicted max speeds of Mach 6
First test flight in 2025
Built by Hermeus
Predicted max speeds of Mach 2.5
First test flight in 2026
Built by Hermeus
Predicted max speeds of Mach 5
First test flight by 2030
Built by China's hypersonic plane programme
Predicted max speeds of Mach 6
First test flight in 2025
Built by Hypersonix Launch Systems
Predicted max speeds of Mach 7
First test flight in 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
12 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
EU looks to Sweden as model for investment
The European Union wants to unleash trillions of euro in household savings by encouraging people to invest in capital markets, and it sees Sweden as the template. Europe will soon detail its plan to mobilise citizen funds sitting in bank deposits as part of its savings and investment union. By making it easier for people to invest, it wants to lift household wealth and boost firms' access to funding. According to the Central Bank of Ireland, Irish people have a combined €165.8bn in household deposit savings as of the end of June. Wider adoption of Swedish-style bank accounts would enable people to easily invest savings in stocks. Poland, earlier this month, proposed an investment savings account modelled on Sweden's InvesteringsSparKonto, or ISK system, to create an 'equity culture' attracting the equivalent of €23bn in its first three years. Sweden's retail-trading base is 'among the best in the world' due to the ease with which people have been able to invest in listed companies, Avanza Bank Holding AB savings economist Philip Scholtzé said. The Nordic nation is regarded as a 'best practice' model, said a spokesperson for the financial services department at the European Commission. The bloc aims to provide citizens with 'a wider range of tools and knowledge to invest their savings in ways that can directly benefit their personal economy, while simultaneously turbo-charging the investment landscape in the EU'. National sport Equity investing is akin to a national sport in Sweden. Households invest more than half of their savings in stocks, more than twice the average in the eurozone, according to a report by the European Savings Institute this year. Anyone with a bank account can trade, while the ISK account is not subject to capital gains tax. Securities can be easily bought and sold directly from mobile banking applications. 'Swedes have good reason to be thankful for the ISK account,' said Mohammed Salih, a 32-year-old communications manager who lives in Listerby, Sweden. He has invested with the system for 10 years. I have always saved money and tried to build an economically stable future, but I didn't know how to make the money grow He started an Instagram account to document his journey toward assets equivalent to €90,000. He says he achieved it a few years ago, but still posts stock market tips that attract interest. 'The youngest person who has written to me was 13 years old. His parents had helped him set up an ISK account,' Mr Salih said. The ISK simplified the tax structure around capital investments, removing bureaucratic barriers that had discouraged participation. 'It's just a much simpler way to buy stocks,' Frida Bratt, the savings economist at Nordnet Bank AB, said. 'This has been especially important for young people.' Mutual funds A quarter of Swedes own shares in publicly listed companies, with stakes totalling around €48,000 on average, according to Euroclear Sweden. The Swedish Investment Fund Association shows that 70% of Swedes invest in mutual funds. It remains to be seen what effect the introduction of an EU-wide savings and investment account could have on the wider European market. According to Jonas Strom, the chief executive of the Nordic investment bank ABG Sundal Collier Holding ASA, it is 'definitely possible' to export the Swedish success with the ISK accounts to a wider European audience. The European Commission would only offer a blueprint of how an EU-wide savings and investment account could be constructed, leaving member states to implement it. The success of the proposal depends on the 'political will' of the member states. Bloomberg
Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Irish Times
Export figures are hard to interpret right now, given flux around tariffs
It's hard to know where the State's trade with the US will land once the tariff impact has been digested. There's a lag effect to these levies combined with an uncertainty as to who will ultimately bear the cost. Trump and his Maga operatives are acting as if the burden falls totally outside the US and are boasting about the billions of dollars the US exchequer is likely to garner. But precedent suggests the tariff hit tends to fall on importing firms and ultimately domestic consumers. That's why everyone is looking at the US economy for signs of a slowdown. In the interim, we've got volatile trade numbers. The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show the value of exports from Ireland to the US fell by whopping 60 per cent between May and June, dropping from €10.8 billion to €4.4 billion. READ MORE The headline June figure was also down by a quarter on the same month last year. Most of this merely reflects a levelling of the surge seen in the earlier part of the year when firms rushed to stockpile goods in the US in advance of Trump's Liberation Day tariff announcement on April 2nd. The trade will presumably find its level once all this settles down. The European Union and the Government will be hoping for a manageable decline. From Ireland's perspective, the 15 per cent tariff on pharma , the main element of the State's export trade with the US, represents damage but controlled damage in the context of the US's retreat from free trade. Pharma firms here make big profits, big enough to absorb the hit without uprooting themselves. These companies work around 10-year cycles of investment and are therefore unlikely to jump ship on the whim of one of Trump's policy announcements. The biggest buyer of pharma is state healthcare and therefore much of the trade is inelastic, less sensitive to price changes. That's probably why Trump, in parallel to tariffs, is demanding these firms reduce their prices in the US. His threat to hike tariffs on EU pharma imports up to 250 per cent within a few years flies in the face of the EU-US trade deal and any notion of certainty it might signify. But that's the world we're in at the moment and why the CSO and other data points are so volatile.
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Irish Independent
Irish brewer founded by Smithwick's family becomes second to shift operations stateside to escape Trump tariffs
An Irish beer brand revived by Smithwick's has moved most of its brewing to the US in response to the 15pc tariff President Donald Trump has put on EU imports The decision by Sullivan's Brewing Company, a Kilkenny beer brand co-founded by Dan and Alan Smithwick in 2016, comes as big pharmaceutical and technology companies seek to woo Trump by announcing largescale investments in the US. Earlier this month Apple struck a deal with Trump to invest $600bn (€515bn) in the US over the next four years to foster an 'end-to-end' American chip supply chain.
