>wood's release!! a negotiated deal??>, page-6

japan and france link to build new supersonic jet JAPAN and France are to build a supersonic successor to the retired Concorde, it was announced yesterday.

Designers have already tested an engine that can reach speeds of up to mach 5.5 - more than five times the speed of sound.

Concorde, used by the super-rich and celebrities, flew at twice the speed of sound.

The new plane will carry around 300 passengers and slash the time it takes to fly from New York to Tokyo from 12 to just six hours, it is hoped.

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Companies in both countries will split an investment of around 100million yen (£501,000) a year for research over the next three years.

The Japanese will use their technological know-how to produce the jet-engines. The French side brings its experience of Concorde - operated by Air France and British Airways - to the table.

Japanese trade minister Shoichi Nakagawa said in a statement: "This is a truly significant industrial cooperation. Bringing their respective advantages together ... should lead to the ability to offer highly advanced aircraft services in the future."

But they will have to overcome the difficulties that plagued Concorde, including safety fears, jet-engine noise and high fuel consumption. Concorde first flew in 1969 but even up to retirement in October 2003 had never recouped the billions of dollars invested.

The famous drop-nose jet never recovered after a horrific crash near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport in 2000, killing 113 people.

The seven planes are now in museums in England, Scotland, America and Barbados.

Two months before the Anglo-French Concorde took to the skies, Russia's own doomed supersonic airliner dubbed "Concordski" made its maiden flight.

The lookalike was mothballed after two crashes in 1973 and 1977