China's leading online travel agency wants to bring supersonic flights to the country's 1.4 billion population.

携程战略投资美国超音速飞机制造商，为14亿人口带来超音速飞行

Ctrip has announced on Thursday an investment in US based supersonic airplane developer Supersonic Boom that will help build its commercial aircraft.

The airplane developer is currently building a supersonic airliner capable of carrying 55 passengers at Mach 2.2, which is equivalent to the speed of 1,451mph (2,335 km/h).

Boom boasts that this could cut travel time in half, meaning that a flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles would shrink to just over six hours, instead of the current 12-hour flight time.

The Boom airliner is expected enter service in the mid-2020s.

携程今日宣布与美国超音速飞机制造商Boom Supersonic达成战略投资，助力Boom加速2.2马赫超音速客机的研发。

Boom Supersonic目前正在研发的55座超音速飞机飞行时速为2.2马赫（约合2333千米/时），比普通客机快出一倍多，机票价格却与同航线的商务舱持平。客机预计于2020年中期进行首飞，届时从上海飞往洛杉矶将从现在的12小时缩短到6小时。