Virgin Atlantic says it will actively work to provide a successor to Concorde, following the launch of its 3,500mph space flights.
The airline famously went head to head with arch-rival British Airways (BA) to try and keep Concorde in service for ceremonial or national occasions, but was thwarted by a combination of the UK flag carrier”s refusal to provide the aircraft and Airbus maintenance difficulties.
Speaking to ABTN at Virgin”s launch of services to Kenya this week, chairman, Richard Branson, said: ”We fought to keep Concorde flying and failed - BA would not let us take it over.
”So instead we put our energy into coming up with something that is faster than Concorde ” the Virgin Galactic 2, which will be unveiled in the Mojave desert in around five months.
”Once it has ticked that box, our team of engineers will turn its attention to seeing if we can't have an aircraft like that into space, flying from London to Australia in one hour.”
To the sceptics who say they have heard talk of airlines operating scheduled space services before, Branson counters that nobody believed either that he could turn Virgin Trains into the success it is today. ”It won”t be easy but I promised ten years ago that we would turn the UK”s rail network from the worst to the best,” he said.
”We”re going to give it a real shot - it”s incredibly exciting. It won”t be the cheapest way to travel and we need to crack the technology - we would be happy to talk to partners in Europe and the US.”
Branson also aimed his ire at US authorities concerning the space operation. ”We own the spaceship company and it wasn”t until three months ago that I was allowed to see the plans for the aircraft,” he said.
”The US said I was a foreigner and there was a possibility of using it for military purposes.”