The Boeing hypersonic aircraft could cross the Atlantic in 2 hours

Boeing revealed a hypersonic jet concept capable of carrying passengers from New York to London in just two hours.

The aerospace giant said Tuesday that he was studying an airliner capable of reaching speeds of Mach 5, five times the speed of sound. It's faster than the retired Concorde, which was flying around Mach 2.

Flying at Mach 5, the new Boeing concept could cross the Atlantic in two hours or the Pacific in three hours. A flight from New York to London usually takes about seven hours.

Kevin Bowcutt, chief technical and chief scientist for the hypersonics at Boeing, said that a hypersonic passenger vehicle could be in the air in 20 to 30 years and eventually go into use as a jet plane for world travel. Boeing is considering commercial and military applications.

"We are excited about the potential of hypersonic technology to connect the world faster than ever," Bowcutt said in an article on Boeing's website. "Boeing relies on six decades of work to design, develop, and drive experimental hypersonic vehicles, which makes us the right company to successfully drive efforts to commercialize this technology in the future."

The sleek concept, one of the many hypersonic aircraft studied by Boeing engineers, was unveiled at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Atlanta. It will be exhibited at the Farnborough International Air Show in July.