Boom Supersonic, the American company building what promises to be the world’s fastest airliner, broke the sound barrier for its first time with a test flight in Mojave, California, on Tuesday.

A supersonic passenger jet dubbed the ‘New Concorde’ travelled faster than the speed of sound for the first time during a test flight today. Some 34,000ft above California’s Mojave Desert, the XB-1 prototype reached speeds of 844 miles per hour – more than the 770mph speed of sound.

A sleek white aircraft became the first independently developed jet to break the sound barrier Tuesday, tearing through the air tens of thousands of feet above the Mojave Desert and a crowd of delighted onlookers.