Elon Musk’s Next Blue Sky Idea

Elon Musk has built rockets and electric cars. In the future, he may be building airplanes.

Mr. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, said on Tuesday that he had envisioned a design for an electric supersonic airplane, with the ability to take off and land vertically. He said he began to conceive of such a jet after the Concorde was grounded a decade ago.

“I do think there’s an interesting opportunity to make a supersonic vertical takeoff-landing jet,” Mr. Musk said at DealBook’s Opportunities for Tomorrow Conference on Tuesday.

He recalled becoming concerned when British Airways and Air France said they would retire their fleet of Concordes in 2003. That provided the germ of an idea.

“It bothers me when it seems like the future is getting worse,” Mr. Musk said.

In an interview with the columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, Mr. Musk also talked about Tesla, his electric car company, whose stock has climbed to new heights this year. Responding to a series of news reports about Tesla cars that caught fire after their batteries were damaged, Mr. Musk said his cars were far less likely to catch fire than others on the road.

He said he would not recall the vehicles, defending their safety record. “If there was something we thought would affect the safety, we would immediately do a recall,” Mr. Musk said.

Tesla’s stock fell after the company’s most recent earnings report. Mr. Musk said the concern stemmed from supply constraints in the short term.

The stock price, he added, is “a pretty good deal right now.” But the company’s valuation is still relatively high, and Mr. Musk acknowledged that investors’ faith puts pressure on the company to deliver on those expectations.

As for his next project? Mr. Musk said creating any company is more difficult than it might seem, comparing it to “eating glass and staring into the abyss.” And he said the “death” of a company can feel like a genuine death.

But he has clearly done his homework.

“My favorite airplane is actually the 747,” Mr. Musk said. “I think that’s an awesome design.”