A new lease of life for Concorde?

Nine years after Concorde retired, several firms are working on a new generation of supersonic jets. Executive toy, or something that will change travel? Matthew Partridge investigates.

What happened?

In November 2003, Concorde was retired from service, marking the end of commercial supersonic air travel (see box). However, a number of companies are working on jets that travel faster than the speed of sound. These include Gulfstream, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. One of the challenges being tackled by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) is how to reduce the problem of sonic booms', the noise generated when a plane breaks through the sound barrier. The most interesting research comes from a British company, Reaction Engines, which has developed an engine in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) that could take planes to five times the speed of sound.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri