Rocketing From New York To Tokyo – Right Around The Corner [VIDEO]

I’ve never been to Tokyo and it’s not on my bucket list, but there are plenty of Americans who do travel there. Some go for business, some for sightseeing, some to visit family. But whatever the reason the 12 hour flight travel time will soon be getting a whole lot shorter.

How about a 45-minute flight? That’s about the same as traveling from New York to Buffalo.

XCOR is a private rocket company that’s building the supersonic passenger plane they’re calling the Lynx and the first passengers could be stepping aboard as early as 2014. It won’t be cheap. It’ll cost each passenger about $95,000. There’s already a waiting list including actor Ashton Kutcher.

The Lynx will take off and land on a runway like any other plane and at most, the first rocket planes will only have about six passenger seats. Plus you’ll have to pass a training course to ride along because during the 90-second vertical launch into space passengers will be subjected to three to four times the force of gravity. That’ll be just the appetizer. On re-entry they’ll feel up to 6 g’s. For a part of the flight it’ll reach 62 miles above the earth as compared to six miles for regular flights. Ready to hop aboard?

Test flights of the Lynx are scheduled to begin as early as next year. If I was offered a seat I’d take it without questions.