Much has been made of the return of supersonic travel, but our experts say you’re more likely to see space tourism take of than ly on Concorde’s successor. Designing any new plane is a cash drain, says The Air Current ‘s Ostrower, so although there are heavily touted plans in the works, he doubts they’ll come to fruition. Supersonic’s noise pollution and increased carbon emissions could also sound its death knell.
Space travel, however, is already on the cards. For example, Elon Musk plans to send his Big Falcon Rocket to the Moon by 2023, and has mooted trips to Mars. Meanwhile, Richard Branson’s team at Virgin Galactic are at test light stage. Ostrower reckons fullon space tourism is “not far” of.