IT ALL began with a tennis dinner. The year was 1981, and 47-year-old Captain Brian Walpole was flying high. As one of the ...

Denver-based Boom Technology's XB-1 demonstrator plane hit Mach 1.122 — 750 mph. It's the first independently developed ...

While the prospect of commercial supersonic flights is probably at least a decade from becoming a reality due to Boom ...

Dubbed the XB-1, the needle-nose jet with Concorde-style swept wings was carrying just one person – a test pilot – as it clipped Mach 1.12 (a staggering 1,200kph) at an altitude of 35,290 feet high ...

However, the jet was criticized for its inefficiency. Compared to a Boeing 747, the delta-wing Concorde guzzled four times as much fuel and carried only one-fifth as many passengers — around 100.

On July 25, 2000, an Air France Concorde crashed into a hotel and exploded shortly after takeoff in Paris, killing all 109 ...