Leave London after lunch. Land in New York before the morning is over. Not because of time zones doing you a favor — because the plane you're on is flying at Mach 1.7. Twice the speed of sound. Fast enough that the planet starts to feel measurably smaller.

That's what Boom Supersonic is building. And three major airlines have already written checks.

Didn't we already do this?

Yes. The Concorde. It flew from 1976 to 2003, crossed the Atlantic in 3.5 hours, and was so loud and expensive that governments banned it from flying over land. Round-trip New York to London in its final year: $12,000. That’s like 2,100 airport beers in today's dollars.It was a miracle of engineering built exclusively for people who were rich and faint of hearing.

Then Concorde retired in 2003 and for over 20 years, commercial aviation just… slooooowed down. Whatever happened to pedal to the metal? All gas no brakes? Living life a quarter mile at a time? Vin Diesel taught me speed was family. What the heck, aviation community?