The plane could fly from London to New York in three hours (Picture: NASA)

A new plane that would fly from London to New York in three hours has just received crucial funding.

The aircraft, dubbed the ‘Son of Concorde’, was proposed by Nasa and has just been given the go-ahead by US officials.

Why you should say no to pointless upgrades and refuse to buy an iPhone 11

Its official name is the Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, and it aims to cut out the loud sonic booms that echoed above towns and cities when the original Concorde would fly.

QueSST could make its maiden voyage in 2021 if all goes according to plan. If so, it will halve the current travel time between London and New York.

Nasa has been awarded £14.3billion in the latest US budget, around £360million more than last year – although it is not clear how much of this will fund production of the Son of Concorde.

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The budget said: ‘The Budget fully funds the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, an experimental supersonic airplane that would make its first flight in 2021.

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‘This “X-plane” would open a new market for US companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half.’

QueSST is the latest addition to Nasa’s X-series of experimental aircrafts and rockets, which are used to test new technologies.

The X designation means that they are part of the US’s research missions.

Pack your bags – you’re going to NYC (Picture: NASA)

Lockheed Martin has been working on a preliminary design, but Nasa has also indicated that other companies can submit designs as well.

BAE Systems has been showcasing its autonomous boat at London arms expo

With QueSST, Nasa is hoping to achieve a sonic boom at least 60 dBA lower than the original Concorde, which was operated until 2003.

A spokesman for the space agency previously said their aim was to create a boom ‘so quiet it hardly will be noticed by the public, if at all… like distant thunder [or] the sound of your neighbour forcefully shutting their car door outside while you are inside’.

Once a contract has been awarded, the winning team will undergo a critical design review in 2019, as the plan edges closer to life.</s>Hopping the pond is about to get a lot quicker.

A new supersonic jet that some are calling “Son of the Concorde” could fly from New York to London in three hours, and may be used to transport commercial airline passengers sooner than you think.

The NASA creation, officially called a Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), can break the sound barrier without creating the deafening sonic boom of previous models, therefore making it a serious contender for use in commercial flights — something that hasn’t happened since the Concorde was grounded in 2003.

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The speed of sound is 767 mph. The goal of the LBFD is to fly at 1,074 mph.

While the technology previously existed and NASA has already been testing a preliminary design called the Quiet Supersonic Transport, or QueSST, the U.S. government’s recently approved 2019 budget includes full funding for the experimental plane. If all goes to plan, it will make its first test run in 2021. Potential commercial flights would follow.

WATCH THIS: Airline Passenger Booted from 2 Flights for Wearing All of his Clothes to Avoid Checked Bag Fee

The project “would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half,” according to the White House Budget, which also increases funding for “research on flight at speeds more than five times the speed of sound, commonly referred to as hypersonics,” used for spacecrafts and national defense applications.

A few other companies, including Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, are working on similar projects. Virgin’s proposed plane would travel at twice the speed of sound, or 1,451 mph.</s>‘Son of Concorde’ could fly in 2021: US approves Nasa's plans for a quiet 1,100mph craft that can go from London to New York in THREE HOURS#RIN #Navigation #Planes #London #NewYork #USA #NASA #Concorde #future #Travelhttps://t.co/XXswbaDG94 pic.twitter.com/FmMIWzXna6</s>A new generation of quiet supersonic aircraft has moved a step closer to reality after Donald Trump gave the go-ahead to plans for a quiet 'Son of Concorde'.

The plane, proposed by Nasa, is dubbed the Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) low-boom flight demonstrator.

It aims to cut out the noisy sonic booms that echoed above cities in the era of Concorde, while travelling at speeds of 1,100mph (Mach 1.4 / 1,700 km/h).

QueSST will make its first flight in 2021 if production goes according to plan and could one day halve travel times from London to New York to just three hours.

Nasa's vision has been approved In the latest proposed US budget released by the Office Of Management And Budget In Washington, DC.

The space agency was awarded $19.9 billion (£14.3bn) for the next year, $500 million (£360m) more than the previous year.

It is not known what proportion of this will be spent on the supersonic aircraft project.

QueSST is the latest addition to the X-series of experimental aircraft and rockets, used to test and evaluate new technologies and aerodynamic concepts.

Their X designation indicates their research mission status within the US system of aircraft naming.

This all dates back to Chuck Yeager's sound-barrier-breaking craft, the X-1, a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designed and built in 1945, that achieved a speed of nearly 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 kmh) in 1948.

QueSST will be used as a test bed for technologies that could make their way into commercial planes.

Writing in the budget, its authors said: 'The Budget fully funds the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, an experimental supersonic airplane that would make its first flight in 2021.

'This “X-plane” would open a new market for US companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half. '

In June 2017, Nasa announced that it planned to begin work on the supersonic X-plane as early as 2018.

Lockheed Martin has been working on the preliminary design, with hopes to move on to build the demonstrator, but NASA also opened the door for other companies to submit their own designs as well.

The space agency is hoping to achieve a sonic boom 60 dBA lower than other supersonic aircraft, such as the Concorde, a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet that was operated until 2003.

The QueSST low-boom flight demonstrator (LBFD), or X-plane, aims to produce a much lower 'boom' than other supersonic aircraft at speeds beyond Mach 1.

It is designed to fly at Mach 1.4 (1,100mph / 1,700 kph), 55,000 feet (10 miles) above the ground.

The aircraft is shaped to separate the shocks and expansions associated with supersonic flight to reduce the volume of the shaped signature, and was developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works over 20 years.

Recent research has shown it is possible for a supersonic airplane to be shaped in such a way that the shock waves it forms when flying faster than the speed of sound can generate a sound at ground level so quiet it will hardly will be noticed by the public, if at all.

The space agency is hoping to achieve a sonic boom 60 dBA lower than other supersonic aircraft, such as the Anglo-French Concorde.

In a written statement, a Nasa spokesman previously said the aim was to create a boom 'so quiet it hardly will be noticed by the public, if at all... like distant thunder [or] the sound of your neighbor forcefully shutting his car door outside while you are inside.'

It's been decades since Nasa has worked on a manned supersonic X-plane, and after the contract is awarded, the winning team will undergo critical design review in 2019 to bring the plan closer to life.

Nasa is hoping to see the first flight tests take place in the first quarter of 2021.

For the most part, the demonstrator tests will take place across two phases at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, and culminating at the base housing at Edwards AFB.

The first will focus on aircraft build, checkout, and supersonic flight envelope expansion set for late 2021, followed by efforts focusing on low-boom acoustic validation, according to Aviation Week.

Then, in 2022, researchers will assess the ground signature of the demonstrator, and the effects on atmospheric and flight conditions from the boom.

Nasa is hoping the low-boom X-plane will support changes in US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, to allow supersonic flight over land.

Whenever an aircraft flies supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound, it produces shockwaves that is eventually heard on the ground as a loud sonic boom.

This is the driving factor behind the FAA restriction on supersonic flight over land.

Nasa intends to demonstrate quieter supersonic flight through the LBFD, and should the quiet thump of the shockwaves prove to be within acceptable limits to the FAA and communities on the ground.

According to predicted sound levels, it may open the future to supersonic flight over land on a commercial level.

Incredible images of an Air Force jet passing in front of the sun revealed in December 2017 show how Nasa will visualise shockwaves produced by the QueSST.

The space agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California captured the images of its Test Pilot School T-38 as it transitioned from subsonic speed to supersonic using a technique called schlieren photography.

The agency said it brings them one step closer to being able to visually capture the shockwaves of its future supersonic X-plane.</s>The Trump administration's fiscal year 2019 budget proposal for NASA includes full funding for an experimental supersonic airplane that could one day transport commercial-airline passengers faster than the speed of sound.

Known as the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), this X-plane is scheduled to make its first test flight as early as 2021 and "would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half," the White House budget request states.

The goal of supersonic aircraft like LBFD is to make commercial airplanes that can fly faster than the speed of sound without generating a loud and obnoxious sonic boom, an ear-splitting noise associated with shock waves generated by an aircraft as it breaks the sound barrier. [Images: Airplanes of Tomorrow, NASA's Vision of Future Air Travel]

While NASA has been breaking the sound barrier with its experimental aircraft since Chuck Yeager's famous flight of the Bell X-1 in 1946, the sonic-boom issue has been the main reason why supersonic passenger planes still aren't in use today. (The Concorde, a now-retired supersonic passenger jet built in the 1970s, would only fly over the ocean for that reason.) Another issue is the fuel efficiency, which is significantly reduced due to drag at supersonic speeds, NASA officials said in a statement.

"Future supersonic aircraft seeking to achieve a low-boom, such as NASA's LBFD, will rely on a swept wing design in order to fly at supersonic speeds without producing a loud sonic boom," NASA officials said. "The swept wing design generally produces crossflow, which is a name for air flow disturbances that runs along the span of the wing, resulting in turbulent flow, increased drag and ultimately higher fuel consumption."

The agency has already been testing preliminary designs of the LBFD X-plane. Last summer, a scale model known as the Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) aircraft was put to the test in a supersonic wind tunnel at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. With the financial support allotted by the 2019 budget request, the agency would be able to start building the full-scale LBFD with the goal of beginning flight tests in 2021.

"This budget maintains a robust investment of $633.9 million to improve air traffic management, make progress integrating unmanned systems into the airspace, and fund an experimental supersonic airplane and increase hypersonics research," NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said during the annual State of NASA speech on Monday (Feb. 12).

The $633.9 million budget proposed for NASA's Aeronautics division in fiscal year 2019 is $21.6 million less than the division received in 2018, which amounts to a 3.3-percent decrease.

While NASA works on its new supersonic plane, commercial space companies are working on similar concepts. Virgin Galactic and Boom Technology are also collaborating to build a supersonic passenger jet that can travel at twice the speed of sound, or 1,451 mph (2,335 km/h), enabling flights from London to New York City in about 3 hours.

Another company, Spike Aerospace, is developing its S-512 Quiet Supersonic Jet, which could make the same trip in about the same time. With today's passenger airplanes, that trip typically takes 6 to 7 hours.</s>In the hopes of speeding up commercial flight times, Donald Trump has approved funding for Nasa to develop a new type of supersonic plane.

The plane, dubbed the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft, will be as fast as Concorde, but much quieter.

This would allow flights to take place at high speed over land, as well as over the sea.

QueSST would fly at staggering speeds of Mach 1.4 (1,074 miles/hour) - nearly twice the speed of commercial airliners currently used.

Unlike Concorde, which has a deafening sonic boom, QueSST will be designed to generate shock waves with a softer rumble.

A spokesperson for Lockheed Martin , lead contractor of the project, said: “The aircraft is shaped to separate the shocks and expansions associated with supersonic flight to reduce the volume of the shaped signature.

“QueSST’s ‘heartbeat’ will be dramatically quieter than the traditional ’N-wave’ sonic boom associated with the current supersonic aircraft in flight today.”

Donald Trump has now approved Nasa’s plans in the latest proposed US budget.

The budget states: “The Budget fully funds the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, an experimental supersonic (faster than the speed of sound) airplane that would make its first flight in 2021.

“This ‘X-plane’ would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half.”</s>According to Space.Com, the 2018 NASA budget shows some exciting sneak peaks at what’s around the corner. While the ISS and many other programs are getting cut because Trump hates science, the administration also suggested that it intends to fund the development of a super quiet, potentially hypersonic airplane.

Hypersonic cruising speeds have been sort of the holy grail of commercial flight for decades. The Concorde got close-ish, able to crank all the way up to 1350 miles per hour. Unfortunately, the Concorde also had its fair share of issues — including tremendous fuel costs and that pesky sonic boom.

NASA’s new project is essentially a testing platform for ultra high-tech materials that would later be adapted to commercial flight. With that, one of the top goals is to find a way to cut the sonic boom so that these planes could fly near heavily populated areas without causing all the glass within a few miles to rattle and shatter.

Sonic booms are a major engineering challenge. For years, controlled supersonic flight was thought to be impossible. That’s because airplanes that top the speedometer essentially catch up to their own sound waves. In short order, these waves align and create a powerful burst of energy that we experience as that characteristic boom.

Lockheed Martin, a longtime NASA contractor has been given the basic contract. And the intention is to bring the boom strength down to a point that’s only a little louder than a normal conversation you might have in a sparse restaurant.

In a statement, NASA said that it hopes to have an aircraft “so quiet it hardly will be noticed by the public, if at all … like distant thunder, the sound of your neighbor forcefully shutting his car door outside while you are inside.”

Accomplishing that won’t be easy, but the hope is that with advanced new materials and novel engine placement. Many similar craft (including some from NASA) have been experimenting with alternate engine placement, but this proposal would have the turbines sitting above the fuselage and angled upwards, essentially nudging the boom up and away from the people on the ground.

With test flights starting in the early 2020s, we probably won’t see this tech maturing for a few years yet, but it offers an exciting vision of the possibilities of flight in the 2030s, and I’m here for it.

Let us know what you like about Geek by taking our survey.</s>They included two dozen colors; 12 shades of red alone.

The roses were all a little tired-looking from the journey, the florists said, so workers spent the next few days nursing them back to health — hydrating, cleaning and preening them before arranging them into $100 dozens to be delivered to New Yorkers.

Perhaps, to you.

Now, they have about a week before they wilt — seven days is the typical postsale life expectancy of a rose. “Most flowers, you’re just enjoying the beauty of its death,” Mr. Faitos told us.

Still, they’ve made it this far.

Here’s what else is happening:

Mild and lovely, with a high of 50.

But grab an umbrella. It may rain later this evening.
• In the first State of the City Speech of his final term, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged that by the time he leaves office New York would be the fairest city in the country. [New York Times]
• A federal lawsuit is challenging the Trump administration by arguing that marijuana should be legal under federal law. [New York Times]
• Bob Hugin, a former pharmaceutical executive, announced he was running for the Republican nomination in New Jersey for the Senate seat held by Robert Menendez. [New York Times]
• Ahmad Khan Rahimi, the man responsible for building and planting the bomb that exploded in Manhattan in 2016, was sentenced to two life terms. [New York Times]
• For the second time in two months, a federal judge issued an injunction that ordered the Trump administration to keep the DACA program in place. [New York Times]
• As DreamYard Preparatory, a once failing high school, makes significant improvements, school officials want to ensure that they sustain its progress. [New York Times]
• A police sergeant who fatally shot a mentally ill woman took the stand, telling the court that he tried to prevent her from picking up a pair of scissors. [New York Times]
• Despite a large housing stock, there is still a low vacancy rate throughout the five boroughs, a new report from New York City Housing Preservation and Development shows. [Metro New York]
• Inside one of Bushwick’s only remaining tortilla factories. [Bushwick Daily]
• For the second year in a row, Jersey City has been named the most diverse city in the country, the financial services website WalletHub has found. [NJ.com]
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing.
• New York Road Runners hosts a singles jog and mixer at the RunCenter in Midtown. 6:30 p.m. [Free]
• See Alan Cumming perform in “Many Fathoms Deep,” a Valentine’s Day show of song, spoken word and cabaret, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side. 7 p.m. [Tickets start at $75]
• Celebrate love with laughs at “Looking for Love in All the Love Places” or “Be Mine: Improvisers and Their Real-Life Valentines,” at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Hell’s Kitchen. 8 and 9:30 p.m. [$9]
• ... Or at a Valentine’s Day stand-up comedy showcase at Q.E.D. in Astoria, Queens. 9 p.m. [$10]
• Looking ahead: On Thursday morning, “Exerskate,” a fitness class for experienced skaters, on the rink at Bryant Park in Midtown. 8 a.m. [Free]
• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

The overlap of Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday may cause a quandary for some.

Still, many observant Catholics in the city will be wearing ash crosses on their brows.

Have you ever wondered where the ash came from?

We put that question to the Archdiocese of New York, which oversees St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan and nearly 300 other congregations around the city.

“The ashes are derived from the remaining palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday service,” said Mercedes Lopez-Blanco, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

“The fronds of the palms are burned,” a process that takes place offsite — sometimes as far away as Florida — where they are incinerated in an open fire, collected and shipped back to the city.

Before today’s ceremony at St. Patrick’s, the sacristan, or church preparer, prepared 25 plates of ash. The ashes were to be blessed by the priest at 7 o’clock this morning, just before Mass.

About 50,000 New Yorkers receive ashes from the cathedral on Fifth Avenue each year, Ms. Lopez-Blanco told us, and the archdiocese is expecting a similar turnout today.

The message that comes with the cross: “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return.”

New York Today is a morning roundup that is published weekdays at 6 a.m. If you don’t get it in your inbox already, you can sign up to receive it by email here.

For updates throughout the day, like us on Facebook.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com, or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Follow the New York Today columnists, Alexandra Levine and Jonathan Wolfe, on Twitter.

You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com.</s>He has picked up food: a slice of pizza, a chicken sandwich, “six McDonald’s cheeseburgers; hold the onions.”

And hired dog acupuncturists and psychics. (The psychics informed owners that their dogs were nervous, and did not wish to eat beans.)

He has also fetched cots — for the coaches, not the dogs: The dogs get the beds. “The owner wants the dog having optimal sleep,” Mr. Grymek said. “They’re in the show, after all.”

Here’s what else is happening:

A little cooler today but the rain is gone, and the clouds will break up by afternoon, with a high around 43.

Then cold tonight and fair tomorrow. Not a bad start.
• The Legal Aid Society is threatening to sue if Nycha does not return upward of $10 million in rent payments after residents were left without heat this winter. [New York Times]
• Yoselyn Ortega, who worked as a nanny for a Manhattan family, is accused of murdering two of the children she cared for. [New York Times]
• Joseph Percoco, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s former deputy secretary often used the governor’s name to further his own interests, according to testimony in his federal corruption trial. [New York Times]
• A correction officer suffered a fractured neck when he was attacked by inmates in a Rikers Island jail. [New York Times]
• The Olmsted-Beil House in Staten Island, the one-time home of Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park, was purchased by the city but has fallen into disrepair. [New York Times]
• New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company and demanded that any victims of Harvey Weinstein be justly compensated. [New York Times]
• Sleep apnea testing should be federally mandated to prevent more train derailments, Senator Chuck Schumer says. [Am New York]
• More than 100 people packed into Bar Sepia in Prospect Heights to show support for the owner as she mounts a last-ditch effort to hold onto her 14-year-old business. [New York Post]
• A fourth New York City child has died from flu-related complications, police sources said. [New York Post]
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing.
• Day 1 of Off-Broadway Week, with two-for-one tickets at dozens of shows around the city. (Here are a few New York Times Critic’s Picks.) Times and prices vary.
• The theater director Arin Arbus joins Randy Cohen’s “Person Place Thing” show to discuss “The Winter’s Tale,” at Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. 7:30 p.m. [$15]
• Monday Night Magic at the Players Theater in Greenwich Village. 8 p.m. [$42.50]
• A Mardi Gras Monday party (followed by a Fat Tuesday celebration) at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. 8 p.m. [$15]
• Looking ahead: On Wednesday, the Bond Street Euterpean Singing Society performs “Love in the Parlors,” a Valentine’s Day concert of Schubert, Brahms and others, at the Merchant’s House Museum in NoHo.
• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

On this day in 1931, the public was introduced to “the strangest passion the world has ever known.”

That, according to an ad in The Times, was the passion of Dracula for blood.

The horror film, based on the novel by Bram Stoker, premiered Feb. 12 at the Roxy Theater on 50th Street, a venue nicknamed the “Cathedral of Motion Picture” and considered at the time the finest cinema in New York City.

The ad, along with the Times review of the film, underscores that it’s a “talking film” — then a novel concept. Silent films transitioned to “talkies” with speaking, singing and dancing in the late 1920s.

The movie and its sharp-toothed protagonist, now thought to be “more comical than scary,” were described as “bloodcurdling,” “evil” and “eerie.”

Fog, a highly technical special effect at the time, made it all the more spooky.

New York Today is a morning roundup that is published weekdays at 6 a.m. If you don’t get it in your inbox already, you can sign up to receive it by email here.

For updates throughout the day, like us on Facebook.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com, or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Follow the New York Today columnists, Alexandra Levine and Jonathan Wolfe, on Twitter.

You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com.</s>Nasa's plan of developing and flying a supersonic aircraft is now closer to reality, thanks to the support received from President Donald Trump administration.

Trump's recently announced budget for the fiscal year 2019 includes full funding for the high-speed aircraft that, once ready, will break the sound barrier and cut down a six-hour long flight from New York to Los Angeles by half.

The budget includes a total investment of $633.9m (£456.5m) to improve air traffic management, integrate unmanned systems into airspace, develop experimental supersonic aircraft or 'X-Plane' and further the research to achieve even higher speeds.

Though supersonic flight capabilities have been around for a long time, the futuristic X-Plane aims to solve a critical problem associated with it — sonic booms.

When the last commercial supersonic plane, the Concorde, flew, people on the ground had to deal with a thunderous 30-mile wide noise, which was loud enough to shatter windows.

As the aircraft displaced air molecules at high-speed, a menacing shockwave formed and spread into all directions. The effect of that ear-splitting sound (several times louder at 90 dBa) was so devastating that the Concorde was restricted to fly only over the ocean for a short while and was finally grounded in 2003.

However, Nasa aims to solve that problem with its X-plane aka Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD). "Future supersonic aircraft seeking to achieve a low-boom, such as Nasa's LBFD, will rely on a swept wing design in order to fly at supersonic speeds without producing a loud sonic boom," the agency said a few months back.

The changes made to the shape of the aircraft will disperse the shockwaves across a wide range of points behind it, reducing the noise output to 60 to 65 A-weighted decibels (dBa) or something as loud as a racing luxury car.

Nasa has been testing a subscale version of the X-Plane and plans to develop and fly a 94-feet long model by 2021, following which American airlines would get a chance to integrate the required technology and enable supersonic passenger travel without creating the obnoxious noise. As the budget request notes, the move would not only cut cross-country flight times in half but also open a new market for US companies to create jobs.
A new plane that would fly from London to New York City in three hours has just received crucial funding. The aircraft, officially named Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) and dubbed the "Son of Concorde", was proposed by NASA and has just been given the go-ahead by US officials. QueSST could make its maiden voyage in 2021 if all goes according to plan. If so, it will halve the current travel time between London and New York City.