Supersonic planes are cool but do you know what is even cooler? You guessed it. Hypersonic planes. If you didn't know, supersonic planes are those that can travel faster than the speed of sound (approx 761 mph). This speed is known as Mach 1.

Hypersonic planes are those that can travel a lot faster. The speed at which a plane is considered hypersonic is not exactly fixed, but Mach 5 (5 times faster than sound), is generally accepted to be hypersonic.

At Mach 5, you're traveling at 3836 miles per hour! That is fast. Like, really fast! You could travel from the US to Asia in just under 2 hours. Imagine if commercial planes were capable of this!

But that's what the future president of the United States could experience if a recent report is anything to go by.

Hypersonic Air Force One

The U.S. Air Force has apparently awarded a contract to an aerospace startup called Hermeus. They have been tasked with creating the first hypersonic version of the Air Force One that is used to shuttle the President of the U.S. around the world.

What's interesting is that the startup already has a prototype engine ready that they have tested. In fact, they have been working on it for more than a year now.

Now that the engine is ready, Hermeus will look to build a plane around it. However, it is still a long process ahead and it might take them another 10 years to come up with the safest hypersonic plane that could possibly be made.

In the meantime, Boeing will provide the next iteration of the Air Force One in 2021. If all goes well, the Hypersonic plane will replace this next version from Boeing after a decade.