The airline tycoon has confirmed that Virgin has options to buy 10 of the recently revealed supersonic Boom jets, which will be capable of flying at 1,451mph  - about 100mph faster than Concorde - and reaching New York from London in three and a half hours.

The Boom jet is being built by former Amazon executive Blake Scholl, who is putting a prototype of Boom together in a Colorado aircraft hangar.

Virgin said it hopes to help with the manufacturing and testing process.

It told MailOnline Travel: 'Richard has long expressed interest in developing high speed flight and building high-speed flight R&D through Virgin Galactic and our manufacturing organization, The Spaceship Company. 

'We can confirm that The Spaceship Company will provide engineering, design and manufacturing services, flight tests and operations and that we have an option on the first 10 airframes. It is still early days and just the start of what you'll hear about our shared ambitions and efforts.'

Scholl said: 'We're thrilled to be working with Virgin. It's hard to imagine a better partner for bringing supersonics to market.'

When created Boom will have 40 seats - with a ticket costing $5,000 (£3,540).

Speaking to Bloomberg, Scholl, 35, said: 'The idea is for a plane that goes faster than any other passenger plane built before, but for the same price as business class.'

The plane will be built using a carbon-fibre composite instead of aluminium, and the firm says it simulates millions of designs each day.