Virgin Galactic is firing on all cylinders in aerospace innovation. After presenting, at the end of July, the passenger cabin of SpaceShipTwo, its rocket intended for space tourism, the company, created in 2004 by Richard Branson, is launching into supersonic planes.
It announced on Monday that it had established a "preliminary partnership" with the British engine manufacturer Rolls Royce to supply the engines of a future supersonic airliner. It aims to fly at Mach 3, three times the speed of sound. Which would be even faster than Concorde, powered by Rolls Royce. It was flying at Mach 2 at cruising speed. With the Virgin Galactic plane, a London-New York would thus be completed in 90 minutes flat, against 3h30 in Concorde!
Settle the “bang” issue
Virgin Galactic also unveiled the first design studies for the aircraft, which would accommodate between 9 and 19 passengers and fly at an altitude of 18,000 meters, or 7,000 more than a traditional long-haul airliner. The device would be
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