US civilian jet breaks sound barrier in California test flight

An American civil aircraft broke the sound barrier for the first time in California's Mojave Desert, a US aviation company announced on Wednesday.

The XB-1, a demonstrator jet that resembles a military plane, successfully achieved the benchmark during a flight on Tuesday, according to Boom Supersonic, which aims to bring back a type of high-speed travel that went away after the Concorde was wound down in 2003.

The flight took place in the same airspace where US test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in 1947.

"XB-1's supersonic flight demonstrates that the technology for passenger supersonic flight has arrived," said Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl.

"Next, we are scaling up the technology on XB-1 for the Overture supersonic airliner. Our ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone."

Boom is developing a commercial jet called Overture, which is designed to carry as many as 80 passengers at Mach 1.7, about twice the speed of today's commercial airlines.

The jet's maximum range is 4,888 miles (7,867 kilometers) and it is designed to fly between Miami and London in less than five hours, compared with the eight and a half hours on current planes.

Boom has 130 orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines.

The jets will be "net-zero" in carbon use because they will use renewable fuel.

Boom last year opened a factory in  Greensboro, North Carolina, where it can produce 33 planes per year, with the potential to double that volume once a second production line is added.

Commercial supersonic jet travel was introduced in the 1970s with the Concorde, but the jets were retired in 2003, due to due environmental concerns and after a 2000 Air France accident that killed 113 people.

The aircraft could fly at over twice the speed of sound, creating its famous "sonic boom" when it burst through the sound barrier.