Aerospace Startup Aims to Cross the Pacific in an Hour

It’s been nearly 20 years since the end of the Concorde put supersonic passenger air travel on hold, but startups and industry giants alike are working on ways to not only fly beyond the sound barrier, but potentially much faster — into the realm of hypersonic travel.The most ambitious efforts in recent years floated the possibility of flying at Mach 4 or 5, up to five times the speed of sound — fast enough to trim the flight from New York to London down to 90 minutes.But what if you could go even farther in even less time; say, from Los Angeles to Tokyo in 60 minutes?A Texas company says its technology could enable flights at speeds of 12 times the speed of sound, or some 9,200 miles per hour.Venus Aerospace earlier this month announced the completion of a $20 million fundraising round toward its ultimate goal: a zero-carbon spaceplane that could cross the globe in an hour.