This airplane company wants to take you anywhere on Earth in just 1 hour

A company called Venus Aerospace is pursuing the ambition of building a supersonic space plane capable of taking people from Los Angeles to Tokyo in about an hour.

The flight will take off from the ground like a regular airplane and climb to an appropriate altitude. When reaching the specified altitude, a booster will activate and propel the aircraft to the edge of space at a speed of more than 14,484km/h. This is about 12 times the speed of sound.

The plane will fly at an incredible speed for about 15 minutes before re-entering the atmosphere to slow down and finally land at the airport.

It is known that Venus is the company of two former employees who worked at Virgin Orbit of Virgin Group and the company currently has 15 employees.

Most of Venus’ employees are veterans and experienced in the space industry. In the past attempts to create a space plane have failed. But the team believes their efforts will soon pay off.

More efficient engines will allow the aircraft to handle larger volumes of people and cargo, the company says.

Venus admits it has not yet conducted test flights and the plane’s design is still a work in progress. Testing of the aircraft models is expected to begin this summer, and Venus has also received a research grant from the US Air Force.

The company is seeking funding from the US Department of Defense. Once enough money is raised to complete the project, the company believes a commercialized supersonic space plane will take no more than a decade to complete.

There are some mysteries behind Venus’s operation, especially the calculation of the cost per flight and whether enough people are willing to pay the high premiums to make such a flight and to save several hours compared with conventional civil aircraft.

Refer to Slashgear