Supersonic travel could make long weekends a lot more interesting…

Self-driving taxis, ultra-fast vacuum tunnels, and now supersonic planes – the UAE really is a country at the forefront of future transportation.

Earlier today, US-based company Boom announced plans to bring its high-speed passenger airliner, Boom Supersonic to the UAE by the early 2020s.

Speaking at the Dubai Future Foundation, Blake Scholl, Boom Founder and CEO said: “We are delighted to bring Boom to the UAE. UAE airlines already lead the world in travel experience, and the country is embracing other innovative travel technologies such as Hyperloop and drone taxis.”

The 55 passenger commercial airliner is built using state-of-the-art technology to deliver revolutionary travel speeds up to 2.6 times faster than conventional airliners.

For those playing at home, that means a flight from Dubai to London, for example, would only take 4:30 hours, instead of the usual 7:30 hours. Not a bad option when planning that long weekend getaway.

Other notable reductions in flight times from Dubai include, New York in 7:32 hours rather than 14:08 hours, Sydney in 8:17 hours instead of 13:45 hours, and Johannesburg down from 8:10 hours to only 4:33 hours.

There are other benefits to supersonic travel: cruising at 60,000 ft means there’s less turbulence, and at that height you’re able to see the curvature of the earth when peeking out of plane’s windows.

The company also unveiled the XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator, a prototype aircraft that is designed to be a ‘proof-of-concept’ to show that the tech works and the speeds can be reached. It is currently under construction and scheduled to take to the skies by 2018.

Photos: Boom Supersonic

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