Opportunities in electric airplanes: Musk

Musk sees opportunity for supersonic electric airplane

If Elon Musk, endearingly referred to as "the Steve Jobs of automobiles," ever started another company down the road, it would likely involve supersonic electrical airplanes.

"I do think that there's an interesting opportunity to create a supersonic electric vertical takeoff/landing jet," said the CEO of Tesla at the Dealbook Conference Tuesday. "It seems unlikely that it will come from Boeing or Airbus given that they seem to be focused on very incremental improvements to their plans as opposed to radical improvements. But it could come from a startup."

(Read more: Tesla's Musk breakssilence on Model S recall rumor)

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX
Brendan Hoffman | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Musk predicted that in the long-term, all modes of transportation will run entirely on electricity.

"With the ironic exception of rockets," he quickly added. "Unfortunately, there's no way around Newton's third law."

In August, Musk unveiled what he called the "alpha" version of the Hyperloop plan, a high-speed transit concept that would cut travel time between San Francisco and Los Angeles to 30 minutes. Musk said he won't be able to build the Hyperloop himself, citing his duties at Tesla and SpaceX.

"I think people can come up with more than one great idea," said Musk.


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