President, Global Policy Institute; Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Bay Atlantic University, both in Washington, DC
Washington, DC – February 10, 2025 – Boom Achieves Supersonic Flight. The first civil supersonic jet made in America breaks the sound barrier in historic Mojave airspace.” Here is a simple statement on the website of Boom, a relatively small American company, based in Denver, Colorado and Greensboro, North Carolina. Boom was created with the goal of building Overture, a supersonic passenger aircraft that will make business sense for passengers and for the airlines that will buy it and operate it. Imagine this: for the price of a business class ticket, you will be able to fly from Paris to Boston in half the time.
For sure, supersonic flight is not news. American companies have been making state of the art supersonic airplanes for decades. But those are military jets, built on government contracts for the U.S. Air Force. Until now, no U.S. corporation seriously tried to manufacture a passenger jet that would travel at supersonic speed. The problem was and is the exorbitant operating costs of supersonic airplanes that would make it impossible for any airline to make money flying them.
The Concorde came and went
In the 1970s France and the United Kingdom tried this. Their joint efforts produced the Concorde, a beautifully designed, sleek supersonic marvel that could fly well-heeled passenger from London to New York in only three and a half hours. For a while, Concorde was touted as a symbol of European technological prowess. Yes, back then, America had Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. But Europe had a supersonic airliner that could travel at twice the speed of sound.
Wonderful. Except that the Concorde from its very beginning was a commercial disaster, even though Air France and British Airways kept flying the money losing airliner as a matter of national pride. The problem was the enormous consumption of expensive jet fuel. It was clear that Concorde was a wonderful aircraft, but really bad for business. Then there was an unfortunate crash in July 2000. And that was the end of the Concorde era. Its last flight from New York to London was on October 24, 2003.
Boom promises affordable supersonic travel
And now Boom wants to be back in the supersonic game. Here is the company website: “Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl said, “XB-1’s supersonic flight demonstrates that the technology for passenger supersonic flight has arrived. A small band of talented and dedicated engineers has accomplished what previously took governments and billions of dollars. Next, we are scaling up the technology on XB-1 for the Overture supersonic airliner. Our ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone.”
Here we have it: democratize supersonic travel. In the Concorde era it was a luxury, only for the super-rich. The January Boom XB-1 supersonic flight was a milestone; but only proof of concept, using a small airplane. The next and much more challenging task is building Overture, a supersonic passenger airplane. This jetliner will carry 64-80 passengers, versus 100 on the old Concorde. Boom is developing its own engine called “Symphony” for the brand new airliner. Milestones are being met. However, progress so far is no guarantee of eventual success. The challenge is to make a truly fuel efficient aircraft that will make money for the airlines.
A new era for business travel
That said, there is keen commercial interest in this new supersonic jetliner. Boom estimates that with a range of 4,250 miles Overture can be used by airlines for about 600 profitable routes. The company claims to have 130 orders and preorders, as well as alliances with American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines.
In the end, Boom CEO Scholl believes that it is technically possible to create a new supersonic travel era in which for the cost of a business class ticket millions of people will be able to get to their destinations in half the time. If Overture will be a fuel efficient supersonic airliner, we can expect a revolution in business travel, and also in the way international business relations are conducted, and a lot more.
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