'Son of Concorde' plans unveiled
"Japan and France are to work together to develop a successor to the retired supersonic jet aircraft Concorde.
Companies from the countries will split an annual investment of $1.84m (£1.01m) for research over the next three years, Japan's trade ministry said.
The new plane will have 300 seats and cut the flight time between New York and Tokyo to six hours, reports said."
So, they are to research this into 2008?
Branson will flying sub-orbitals by then. True, Branson's won't seat 300, but it could easily cut the time by 1/2. Plus provide a pretty good view.