France, Japan may go supersonic

France and Japan are looking into the possibility of building a supersonic airliner that would carry 300 people from Tokyo to New York in six hours, reports from Tokyo said on Wednesday.

With a research budget of less than $2 million US a year over three years, the effort appeared tentative and preliminary. If the plane were built, it would offer well-heeled travellers their first chance at faster-than-sound flight since the Anglo-French Concorde was retired in 2003.

The 100-passenger Concorde, which first flew in 1969, fell victim to high costs, a terrorism-related travel slump and passenger jitters after a fiery crash at Paris in 2000. It had set records for speed and snob appeal but never repaid the billions spent to develop it.

The proposed new plane would be bigger and faster, cutting the current Tokyo-New York flight time in half. The venture is expected to involve such companies as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space, the Associated Press reported.

Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa was quoted as calling it "truly significant industrial co-operation" that should "lead to the ability to offer highly advanced aircraft and services in the future."