NASA eyes supersonic passenger planes that could fly NYC to London in 90 minutes

Picture this: You start your day at the Empire State Building in New York City, and by evening tea time, you're sipping Earl Grey in London. How's that for a jet-setter's dream come true?

Well, it might just be possible, thanks to NASA's (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) out-of-this-world ambitions!

What

• Usually, commercial passenger planes take a lengthy 7-8 hours to hop across the pond from New York to London.
• But remember the Concorde? That sleek bird could dash from one side of the Atlantic to the other in a mere 3 hours.

• Now, NASA has its eyes on a groundbreaking idea that could potentially trim that cross-continental jaunt down to just 90 minutes.
• Today's jumbo jets zip along at about 965 kilometers per hour, but NASA isn't satisfied with the status quo.
• They're daydreaming about supersonic passenger planes that could break the sound barrier, flying anywhere from Mach 2 to Mach 4, which translates to an eye-popping 2469 to 4939 kilometers per hour in their blog. 

And guess what? Their cosmic research suggests that there's a possibility for this speedy travel on roughly 50 well-established flight routes.

The plan

• The United States and several other countries have rules against supersonic flights over land.

• So, the study mainly looked at flights over the ocean, especially busy routes across the Pacific.

• At the same time, NASA is tinkering with designs, like its experimental X-59 aircraft, which can zip through the skies at supersonic speeds with less noise.