Supersonic air travel could be back in little more than five years if a plane that aims to replace Concorde takes to the skies. Boom Supersonic expects a prototype of its passenger plane to make its first test flight by the end of 2018.
Subsonic and supersonic tests will take place in the US.
If the full-size 55-seat plane is then approved, the first passengers could be travelling at supersonic speeds across the Atlantic by 2023
Blake Scholl, the founder and chief executive of Boom, said at the Paris air show that the design of the XB-1 demonstration plane had passed a performance and safety review ahead of manufacturing.