Lockheed Martin, Aerion Corp. team up

Leaders of Lockheed Martin and Aerion Corp. have announced a deal to build a speedy business jet that they vowed would “engineer a renaissance in supersonic travel,” capable of flying as fast as Mach 1.4, or about 60 percent faster than a typical commercial airliner.

With operations projected to start in 2025, the AS2, as the jet would be called, would be able to fly as many as 12 passengers, and shave as much as three hours off the seven- to eight-hour trips between New York and London, so that business executives could make a daily commute back and forth across the Atlantic.

“We do believe new material and new technologies are making civil supersonic flight a realistic near-term possibility,” said Orlando Carvalho, the executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, at a Friday announcement in Washington.

Despite the struggles of the Concorde, a commercial airliner capable of flying about 100 people and reaching speeds of Mach 2, Brian Barents, executive chairman of Aerion, said he believes the demand would be there for a comfortable, fast-flying jet designed for corporations and the ultrawealthy.

Reno, Nev.-based Aerion forecasts building 300 jets in the first 10 years of production, and that the comfort of the jets would rival other business jets on the market today.