Dr Kshitij Sabnis appeared on BBC Radio 4's Inside Science programme on Thursday 22nd January discussing the future of supersonic aviation, on the 50th anniversary of Concorde's first commercial flight.

Science journalist and producer Tim Dodd and the rest of the team from the BBC came to Queen Mary University's School of Engineering and Materials Science for a tour of the Whitehead Aeronautical Laboratory, and to chat with Dr Sabnis about the legacy of Concorde and if supersonic flight could be return to the future of aviation.

Dr Sabnis demonstrated some of our wind tunnels which allow researchers to study what happens to wind and physical objects at up to three times the speed of sound.

He told the team that some of their research is looking at minimising drag in order to use less fuel for more sustainable and cost effective flight, but that ultimately - because a supersonic aircraft burns about ten times more fuel per air mile - supersonic flight is not yet likely to return to mainstream commercial travel.

"Unless there's a way of minimising the cost of fuel for propelling that aircraft, the fact that we've got shock waves means it's going to be fairly expensive to fly supersonically" he said.

Listen back from 7 minutes and 54 seconds in.