{"id":45356,"date":"2026-01-24T06:36:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T06:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/bbc-inside-science-how-is-air-travel-returning-to-supersonic-speeds\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T06:36:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T06:36:58","slug":"bbc-inside-science-how-is-air-travel-returning-to-supersonic-speeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/bbc-inside-science-how-is-air-travel-returning-to-supersonic-speeds\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Inside Science &#8211; How is air travel returning to supersonic speeds?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">Available for 32 days<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-whitespace-pre-line sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">It\u2019s exactly half a century since two Concorde jets took off from Paris and London respectively. The supersonic jet would come to define top end luxury travel. But Concorde has also been retired for nearly half that time, famously making its final flight to Bristol, UK where it was built, in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>What is Concorde\u2019s engineering legacy? And will supersonic speeds ever be a reality for air travellers again?<\/p>\n<p>Tom Whipple is at Aerospace Bristol, back on-board Concorde which these days is stowed safely in its hangar. He meets Concorde\u2019s former Chief Engineer John Britton. He also hears what it will take to overcome the engineering challenges of supersonic flight from Dr Kshitij Sabnis, lecturer in Aerospace Engineering at Queen Mary University of London. And speaks to founder and CEO of US start up Boom Supersonic Blake Scholl who wants to make supersonic air travel accessible to all.<\/p>\n<p>To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.  <\/p>\n<p>Presenter: Tom Whipple<br \/>\nProducer: Tim Dodd, Kate White, Clare Salisbury<br \/>\nEditor: Martin Smith<br \/>\nProduction Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/w3ct8txw\" aria-label=\"Programme Website of How is air travel returning to supersonic speeds?\" data-testid=\"programme-website-link\" class=\"sw-group sw-inline-flex sw-items-center sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-text-brevier\">Programme Website<\/span><default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16px\" height=\"16px\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-transition sw-ease sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-ml-2 sw-ml-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><default:path d=\"M21.9,16.9v11.5H3.7V10.2h11.1V7.6H1V31h23.6V16.9H21.9z M18,1v2.6h10.2l-0.5-1.1L11,19l1.9,1.9L29.6,4.3l-1.2-0.5V14H31V1 H18z\"\/><\/default:svg><\/a><button class=\"sw-group sw-text-pica sw-block sw-w-fit sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-mr-0.5\">Show less<\/span><default:svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"0.75rem\" height=\"0.75rem\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-ml-1 sw-mt-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><default:path d=\"M0 18L16 0l16 18z\"\/><\/default:svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/w3ct8txw?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Available for 32 days It\u2019s exactly half a century since two Concorde jets took off from Paris and London respectively. The supersonic jet would come to define top end luxury travel. But Concorde has also been retired for nearly half that time, famously making its final flight to Bristol, UK where it was built, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[1050,173,214,9024,13410,13409,445],"class_list":["post-45356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-air","tag-bbc","tag-returning","tag-science","tag-speeds","tag-supersonic","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45358,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45356\/revisions\/45358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}