I’m ecstatic to read that Japan and France are working together to research technologies for a proposed son-of-concorde. There’ always been a part of me that struggles to understand why we don’t have moonbases after landing there 35-odd years ago, and why the Concorde was retired after 34 years without a viable supersonic successor. Surely after 30+ years of technological advancement all planes should be supersonic?

I suppose the A380 represents significant technological advancement, but in terms of flight envelope, it’s just more of the same. Apparently the Japanese scientists are testing an engine that should propel the prosed plane to Mach 5.