After ushering in electric vehicles and shortening long transit times, Elon Musk would be the best bet to build a supersonic jet with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities. What's more, he is 'dying' to make it too.
Although self-proclaimed, Elon Musk is a Technoking. After simplifying global payments with PayPal, he moved to tougher terrains of making electric vehicles and reducing costs of launch satellites and space missions, even when he had to do a lot of work from scratch. So, if you were looking to build an electric jet to 'green' up air transport, you could rely on Musk or his company to do that.
That was probably what Twitter user Sam was hoping for when he set up Musk on the social media platform by sharing a tweet of the Solar Impulse 2 flight that circumnavigated the globe powered by solar energy, back in 2016 and asking him if he was up for a challenge.
Musk replied frankly that he not only wanted to build an eVTOL jet but also want to make it fly at supersonic speeds. Unfortunately, he has too much on this plate.
I’m so dying to do a supersonic vtol electric jet! But I already have way too much on my plate. Any more work and my brain will explode.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 27, 2021
Multiple inventors are looking at innovative ways to solve this problem and Musk is unlikely to dip his feet in such a crowded arena. But that might not stop him from sharing his vision for the supersonic eVTOL jet. A few years ago, Musk and his company SpaceX had shared a whitepaper on the concept of a HyperLoop, a rapid transit system. While SpaceX did not participate in the plan, it has promoted the concept and held multiple competitions to take the idea forward.
Musk's other venture, the Boring Company was born after his frustration after intra-city congestion. So, maybe after some VTOL concepts become reality and are too slow, one could bank on Musk to jump in with a 'supersonic' jet. We do know something about Musk's idea for such a jet. Speaking to Joe Rogan on his podcast, Musk had said that such a jet should ideally use to forms of propulsion. One to stay up in the sky and the other move it around, Independent reported.
