New York to Tokyo in ‘less than a hour’

Branson says he’s hoping to bring back supersonic commercial air travel after getting his Virgin Galactic space venture off the ground.

If we get it right, New York to Tokyo could be less than an hour. You could be traveling at 19,000 miles per hour orbitally. After we’ve done the space program, we will be producing supersonic planes, which will go far, far, faster than [the] Concorde.

Concorde, which could fly from London to New York in three hours, was retired in 2003 by British Airways after 27 years in service.