Japan to resume supersonic jet tests

Japan’s space agency plans to launch an arrow-shaped airplane at twice the speed of sound high over the Australian outback in a crucial test of the country’s push to develop a supersonic successor to the retired Concorde.

The test, possibly next month, follows a three-year hiatus since the first experimental flight of the unmanned aircraft, dubbed the next-generation supersonic transport, prematurely separated from its booster rocket and crashed into the desert.