A team of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) in the US is partnering with aviation companies to explore the feasibility of supersonic executive travel.
Under the initiative, the AFLCMC Presidential and Executive Airlift team has partnered with Boom Supersonic, Hermeus and Exosonic to explore different aspects of high-speed travel.
The step comes amid increasing interest in supersonic travel within private business sectors in the US.
Presidential and Executive Airlift programme executive officer brigadier general Ryan Britton said: “We were able to identify several opportunities where we could use small-business money with some investments from my portfolio to begin to seed these opportunities for supersonic travel.
“From an airforce perspective, we would never holistically invest in commercial transport for executive airlift to fly supersonic and do it all ourselves, but if we can pair our investments with what private investors are doing, well then you have a ten to fifteenfold increase in the amount of money available to actually do something that could change the way we do business for executives or military teams.”
The initiative is expected to help in gaining a better understanding of new materials, engine technology and other associated benefits. The research may also help in enhancing future military strike or reconnaissance missions.
AFLCMC is responsible for the lifecycle management of airforce weapon systems.
Earlier this month, the entity awarded contracts to three companies for the production of missionised prototypes that can fly in experimentation events.
