Think for a second if you were living in 1923 instead of in 2023. It's been five years since the first world war ended and long distance passenger travel is still done either through buses or ships. While human flight is possible, it's not without caveats and limitations. Now, transport yourself to 2023, and imagine seeing a ghastly elongated cylindrical metal object emitting fire from its bottom and landing on a ship in the ocean.
If you'd carried out our small thought experiment, you'll realize that in just a hundred years, humanity has come a long, long way. While folks in 1923 could only travel in air in pairs, these days jumbo jets manufactured by The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) and Airbus SE (OTCMKTS:EADSF) are capable of transporting hundreds of people all over the world at more than five times the speed of the Airco DH.4 - one of the world's first passenger planes.
But what if you wanted to go faster? Well, for that, you'll have to transport yourself back to the past once again. But not too far back; only just two decades, to the era of the Concorde. The Concorde was the world's second supersonic commercial aircraft and the most widely flown plane as well. The aircraft could travel twice as fast as the speed of sound, but several considerations such as an inability to conduct flights over land due to supersonic booms and high operating costs ended up shelving the project. To understand just how expensive it was to fly the Concorde, consider the fact that it could travel 14 passenger miles per gallon of fuel, compared to the 91 passenger miles per gallon of the Boeing 747. The supersonic aircraft was also a fuel guzzler, as for every passenger transported a hundred kilometers, it would use 16.6 liters of fuel, which is significantly higher when considering the 3.3 liters for the Boeing.
Yet, the Concorde's retirement doesn't mean that dreams of supersonic flight are over. While the world's largest aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing do not have any plans for making commercial supersonic jets, others do have such plans, and some of these involve rockets as well. At the same time, even though the supersonic travel industry is quite limited right now, and no point to point travel on Earth options exist, there is some value to the sector. For instance, a research report from The Business Research Company points out that the supersonic jet market was worth $22.9 billion last year and will grow to $23.5 billion by the end of this year. From then until 2027, the sector will post a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% and be worth $27.53 billion by the end of the forecast period. The research firm believes that growth in global air passenger traffic will drive the industry forward, along with newer technologies that aim to reduce emissions and the high sounds produced by these airplanes.
However, while point to point supersonic flights still haven't 'taken off' since the Concorde's retirement, that does not mean civilians are not traveling supersonically. In fact, the rapid growth in the astronautics sector has led to private astronauts flying both to the boundary between Earth and Space, called the Karman line, the International Space Station (ISS), and around the Earth. In fact, it's private astronauts, and not crew from space agencies such as NASA, who have flown the highest orbit around the Earth as well. This particular mission was the Inspiration4 flight which took off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in 2021. The mission was flown by the billionaire Jared Isaacman as part of his efforts to raise funds for a children's cancer hospital, and it saw Isaacman and his crew of four fly to an orbit of 585 kilometers - the highest orbit since a Hubble space telescope mission in 1999. However, the mission's apogee - its furthest point in orbit - was a whopping 1,368 kilometers away from Earth and the highest in human history for missions in orbit. Of course, astronauts part of NASA's Apollo program that took humans to the Moon have flown further, but their mission was beyond the Earth's orbit.
Just as was the case with the Concorde, supersonic travel of today is also limited to the rich simply due to the high costs of flying expensive rockets. Apart from Mr. Isaacman, other billionaires have also traveled to space although, of course, he is the one to have flown the farthest. The other two flew missions for their own companies. The first of these was British billionaire Sir Richard Branson who flew to the boundary of space on his space company Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE)'s SpaceShipTwo spaceplane in July 2021. Sir Branson was followed by the retail billionaire Jeff Bezos, who also flew to the Karman line in his space company Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. Both these vehicles travel faster than the speed of sound during their missions, but their destinations are not on Earth.
With these details in mind, let's take a look at some top supersonic travel companies, out of which the top picks are Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE), Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), and Blue Origin LLC.
To compile our list of the top supersonic travel companies, we first made a list of all firms that have supersonic aircraft designs, manufacture engines for these aircraft, and provide the services. For the ranking, the periphery firms, such as the engine companies, are listed first. These are followed by companies with design projects. Finally, firms that have actual supersonic products are ranked the highest.
General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is an American firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the sole supplier of the jet engine for Lockheed Martin and NASA's X-59 supersonic aircraft, which aims to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight for future passenger planes. A central piece of the aircraft is its engine since it must function with a specially designed nozzle that reduces noise without compromising performance for a high power aircraft.
By the end of last year's fourth quarter, 59 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had bought a stake in General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). The firm's largest investor is Richard S. Pzena's Pzena Investment Management which owns 13.2 million shares that are worth $1 billion.
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), and Blue Origin LLC are some top supersonic travel companies in the world.
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) is an American firm based in Falls Church, Virginia. It has partnered up with the supersonic airplane designer Boom Supersonic to develop a quick response supersonic military transport plane for the United States military.
As of December 2022, 49 of the 943 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had held a stake in Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC). The firm's largest hedge fund in our database is Rajiv Jain's GQG Partners with a $428 million stake that comes via 784,927 shares.
8. EON Aerospace, Inc.
EON Aerospace, Inc. is an aerospace firm set up by a South African billionaire. Its plane is called the NXT-01 which aims to have a top speed of Mach 1.9. However, few details are available about the jet.
7. Exosonic, Inc
Exosonic, Inc is a U.S. firm that is one of the younger companies in the supersonic travel industry. The firm was set up in 2019 and it operates out of Los Angeles, California. The firm is developing a low boom supersonic passenger aircraft, which aims to be suitable for flights over populated areas. This lends it a large market opportunity since supersonic flights in the U.S. are banned due to noise generated by the sonic booms. Exosonic, Inc aims to achieve Mach 1.8 with its aircraft, with 5,000 nautical miles range, and a passenger capacity of 70 people. The jet is intended to have two different variants, one for the private jet industry and the other for commercial airlines.
The business jet model will have two private suites and video teleconferencing capabilities. It will also have lay flat seats that will enable passengers to sleep during their flight. The firm promises to complete the journey from London to Hong Kong in just six hours compared to the standard travel time of eleven hours.
6. Spike Aerospace, Inc.
Spike Aerospace, Inc. is an American aerospace firm with offices in Florida and Massachusetts. Like Exosonic, Spike is also developing a quiet supersonic jet, but it has limited its design to business jets only. Spike's jet, called S-512, is slower than than Exosonic's, with a speed of 1.6 Mach. The jet aims to have a maximum capacity of 18 people, but it's a rare plane that aims to provide passengers with a panoramic view of their surroundings so that they can fully understand where they are and how fast they are traveling.
Spike Aerospace, Inc. joins Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SPCE), Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), and Blue Origin LLC in our list of the world's top supersonic travel companies.
