‘Son of Concorde’ plans unveiled
Japan and France are to work together to develop a successor to the retired supersonic jet aircraft Concorde.
Companies from the countries will split an investment of $1.84m-a-year for research over the next three years, Japan’s trade ministry said.
The agreement to develop the new passenger plane was signed at the Paris Air Show, Japan added.
The new plane will have 300 seats and cut the flight time between New York and Tokyo to six hours, reports said.
Japan’s trade ministry also said the two sides would work at solving the problems that plagued Concorde, such as noise and high-fuel consumption.
Successful tests
“This is truly significant industrial co-operation,” Japan’s trade minister Shoichi Nakagawa said in a statement.
“Bringing their respective advantages together… should lead to the ability to offer highly advanced aircraft and services in the future.”
The ministry added that Japan had successfully tested an engine that could theoretically reach speeds up to five times the speed of sound.
Concorde flew at mach 2 – twice the speed of sound. It never recouped the huge amounts invested in it by the time it was taken out of service, after 34 years, in 2003.
However, French airline Air France was one half of the Concorde team, and the country will bring its own technological knowledge of the supersonic jet to the table.
The deal also represents a break with Japan’s habit of working with US groups in the industry.
“To research closely in this area with the Europeans does represent something new,” said Yoshio Watanabe, an official with the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies which is heading the new initiative in Japan.
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This article from the BBC is about a year old now, i havent read anywhere stating the projects been cancelled, going by this article, the French and Japanese are mid way through reserach.
Personally i feel the idea could be quite feasable, much research has gone into scramjet technology.
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