Concorde Replacement Could Travel From London To NYC In 3 Hours

Lockheed Martin is working on a new jet that will be the future of international travel for passengers who need to get overseas quickly. The jet is called the N+2 and it was designed by Lockheed Martin as a sort of successor to the Concorde. The N+2 jet is aimed at private business jet owners and at commercial flight.

The aircraft is fast enough to make a domestic US flight from NYC to LA in only 2.5 hours. Lockheed's aircraft would hold 80 passengers and have a tri-jet configuration with an engine on top of the aircraft and two others under each wing to help reduce the sonic boom. Lockheed Martin isn't the only aviation firm that is working on this sort of aircraft.

Airbus is working with a US firm called Aerion to build its own supersonic jet that can fly from London to NEC in three hours and for LA to Tokyo in six hours. Aerion's AS2 jet will fly at 1217mph making it almost as fast as the Concorde, which flew at 1350mph.

Aerion says that the aircraft will cost more than $100 million and it is aiming at test flights to begin by 2019. The AS2 will seat up to 12 passengers and is apparently aimed only at business travelers. Airbus and its partner plan to certify the aircraft by 2021 with the first delivery set for 2022. The AS2 is designed to fly at subsonic speeds over the domestic US since laws in the US ban supersonic commercial flight over the country due to sonic boom noise.

SOURCE: Dailymail