Elon Musk has conquered the roads with Tesla Motors (TSLA). And he's rocketed into orbit with SpaceX. Might he now be considering something (literally) in between?

    During an interview at today's New York Times Dealbook conference, Musk admitted that he began designing a new means of supersonic travel after the Concorde was canceled in 2003:

    "I do think there's an interesting opportunity to create a supersonic, electric ,vertical takeoff and landing jet," Musk said. "It seems unlikely to come from Boeing (BA) or Airbus, given that they seem to be focused on very incremental improvements to their planes as opposed to radical improvements. So it could come from a startup. If I were to have another company in the future, which would not be any time soon, I think that would be the thing to do."

    Musk adds that the idea is based on his fundamental belief that the future often seems to be getting worse instead of better, something that also prompted his interest in the so-called hyperloop method of mass transit.

    埃隆•穆斯克创办的特斯拉汽车公司（Tesla Motors）征服了道路；创办的SpaceX公司发射火箭，将卫星送入了轨道；如今，他或许正在考虑打造一款介于太空和地面之间的交通工具。

    穆斯克在今天《纽约时报》（New York Times）Dealbook大会上接受采访时承认，他正着手设计一款全新的超音速交通工具，接替2003年被停飞的协和号客机：

    “我认为，现在打造一款超音速、全电动、可垂直起降的喷气式飞机正是时候，”穆斯克说。“波音（Boeing）和空客都不太可能造出这样的飞机，因为他们过于追求对自己旗下的现款机型进行渐进式改良，而不愿意做出激进的变革。所以，我或许会成立一家初创公司。如果我今后要成立另外一家公司的话，我想我很有可能就会去做这件事。当然，近期还不太可能。”

    穆斯克补充说，他的这种想法是基于自己的基本信念，那就是未来常常是会变得更糟糕，而不是更美好。这种想法也促使他对所谓的大交通“超级回路”产生了兴趣。(财富中文网）

    译者:唐昕昕