Hermeus, an aerospace technology company founded in 2018, plans to massively cut flight times with a jet that can travel at Mach 5&mdashthat&rsquos five times the speed of sound. This would transport a business class traveller from New York&rsquos JFK International Airport, to Paris&rsquo Charles de Gaulle Airport in 90 minutes or less, compared to the usual seven and a half hours. The aircraft is projected to have a travel range of about 7,400 kilometres with an average cruising speed of over 5,300 kilometres per hour&mdasha game-changer for transatlantic long-hauls.

&ldquoWe believe life&rsquos meant to be lived on the ground, not in the air,&rdquo said Hermeus CEO AJ Piplica. The team envisions to connect the world&rsquos cities &lsquofaster than ever before&rsquo, and will engineer the aircraft keeping in mind existing aviation infrastructure. But that doesn&rsquot mean it can fly past several potential challenges. The most pressing, of course, is that Mach 5 travel is still experimental, and can cause significant environmental damage due to an enormous (and inefficient) amount of fuel consumption.

Tickets will be priced at $3,000 (approx. Rs 2.07 lakh) for one-way travel. The company recently raised seed funding from Khosla Ventures, an American venture capital firm, and other private investors, and announced its advisory board. While Hermeus&rsquo founders are SpaceX and Blue Origin alumni, the board has an impressive roster of senior executives from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, Northwest Airlines and more.

Despite the heavy names, the team seems to emphasise on a zen-like vibe to daily proceedings. They already have a &lsquomerch&rsquo section on their website, and one of their job openings asks for a &lsquoGeneral Badass&rsquo. Safe to say, the project&rsquos in interesting hands.