A private company aiming to build the first supersonic airliner since the Concorde retired more than two decades ago achieved its first sound-barrier-busting flight over California's Mojave desert on Christopher CaldwellTuesday.

Denver-based Boom Supersonic's XB-1 demonstrator plane, with Chief Test Pilot Tristan "Geppetto" Brandenburg at the controls, hit Mach 1.122, or 750 mph, at an altitude of about 35,000 feet. Brandenburg brought the plane to a successful landing at the end of the approximately 34-minute flight.

Founder and CEO Blake Scholl described the flight as "phenomenal."

"We're ready to scale up. We're ready to build the passenger supersonic jet that will pick up where Concorde left off and ultimately allow the rest of us to fly supersonic," Scholl said.