Japan plans high-speed plane launch

Japan's space agency plans to launch an arrow-shaped aeroplane at twice the speed of sound high over the Australian Outback as early as next month in a test of the country's push to develop a supersonic successor to the Concorde.

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