A new supersonic jet could get you from LA to Tokyo in under three hours

Florida-based planemakers Aerion have been working on an exciting new product that will change the way passengers fly forever. The company is working on a new supersonic jet that will slash flying time by up to 150% - and should be ready to fly before the end of the decade.

Making the announcement earlier this week, the company revealed that the Aerion AS3, a Mach 4+ commercial airliner, will be able to carry 50 passengers at a range of 7,000 nautical miles. This means that a flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo, which usually takes just under 12 hours currently, could be completed in less than three.

"Our vision is to build a future where humanity can travel between any two points on our planet within three hours. Supersonic flight is the starting point, but it is just that -- the beginning," said Aerion's chairman, president, and CEO, Tom Vice, in a statement. "We must push the boundaries of what is possible."

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The group has been working closely with NASA's Langley Research Center, with a specific focus on commercial flight in the Mach 3-5 range. The company reveals that conceptualisation and design work is currently under way and each jet is set to cost $120-million to create.

This is Aerion’s second plane to be revealed over the past few years. Previously, the brand announced the AS2 which promises to fly New York to London in 4 and a half hours. The company reveals that this 8 - 12 passenger business jet will travel at Mach 1.4 (more than 1 400 km/h) with production starting in 2023.

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The last supersonic passenger jet to fly was the popular concorde which retired from service 17 years ago. "Concorde was a brilliant piece of machinery, a noble experiment, but it put too much emissions in the environment, too much noise into our communities, and was too expensive to operate. What we're trying to do is very different," Vice told CNN Travel last year.

Vice adds that the AS2 will be a gamechanger for businessmen around the world. "We analysed how business owners fly. We looked at a company out of New York that flew business jets around the world, and when we substitute an AS2 for them and rerun those flights for every person who flew on their airplane, AS2 saved them 142 hours a year," said Vice.

Image courtesy: Aerion