Boom supersonic jet plan boosted by $10-mn JAL funding

JAL also agreed to take an option to purchase up to 20 aircraft, the two companies said in a joint statement posted on the carrier's website

Boom Technology, seeking to build a supersonic jet for passenger travel, got a $10 million investment from Japan Airlines Co. as the US start-up aims to revive ultra-fast travel that ended more than a decade back with the Concorde.

Japan Air also agreed to take an option to purchase up to 20 aircraft, the two companies said in a joint statement posted on the carrier’s website. The Asian carrier is the second company to publicly announce an intention to purchase Boom’s supersonic jet, after billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic.

Boom’s idea is to build a 45-to-55 seat aircraft that cruises at Mach 2.2 (1,451 miles per hour), or capable of whisking passengers between New York and London in about three hours. The Concorde, flown by British Airways and Air France at twice the speed of sound, retired in 2003 after almost three decades in service as customers abandoned the jets amid declining economies and maintenance costs to keep them flying soared.

Japan Air, also known as JAL, will provide its knowledge and experience as an airline to support Boom in developing the aircraft, the company said. The aircraft, which aims for an entry into service in mid-2020s, will have a range of 8,334 kilometers, roughly the distance between Beijing and London.