Japan, US plan to develop supersonic jet
`Japanese and US aerospace agencies and companies plan to develop a low-noise, fuel-efficient supersonic jet to take off where the Anglo-French Concorde ended, a press report said. [..]
The research and development cost of the Japan-US project is estimated to reach “several hundred” billion yen, the daily added. Currently, one hundred billion yen is worth some 880 million dollars. [..]
The Japanese side reportedly aims to develop a plane that would travel at the same speed as the Concorde but would produce just one percent of the noise.
Japan hopes to put on the market in about 2020 a supersonic jetliner with a capacity of 200-300 seats that could travel between Tokyo and Los Angeles in five hours — about half the current flight time.’
