Are you ready for the rebirth of supersonic commercial air travel? Boom Supersonic, the US firm designing the Overture supersonic airliner, says its XB-1 one-third-scale trijet demonstrator — also known as “Baby Boom” — has reached a new top speed of Mach 0.69 (428 knots, true airspeed), well over halfway to breaking the sound barrier at Mach 1.
On 7 October, the piloted supersonic demonstrator took to the skies for its fifth flight from California’s Mojave Air & Space Port, climbing to 17,800 feet in the R-2515 Airspace which supports the testing of current and next-generation aircraft and aerospace systems. The flight lasted for 50 minutes.
“Flown by Chief Test Pilot Tristan ‘Geppetto’ Brandenburg, XB-1’s fifth successful flight marks the halfway point of the 10 planned subsonic test flights before breaking the sound barrier,” Boom says in an online update.
“This is the fastest, highest, and longest flight so far as XB-1 progresses through the flight test program on the way to supersonic flight later this year.”
Weeks earlier, on 21 September, XB-1’s fourth flight reached Mach 0.617. This also marked the first inflight use of Boom’s flutter excitation system (FES), a critical vibration device that the company can turn on in order to hit structural vibration modes deliberately before it would encounter them naturally in-flight.
Boom has shared a 20-minute video of the fourth XB-1 flight on its YouTube channel, much to the delight of aviation enthusiasts around the world.
For its fifth XB-1 flight, Boom says the FES was repaired and reinstalled in order to continue data collection at the Mach 0.6 flutter point. And the landing gear was retracted immediately following takeoff, “which will become standard procedure during future test flights”.
Built to prove technologies and materials for efficient supersonic flight, XB-1 is a key part of the development of Overture, which sees Denver-headquartered Boom working with a raft of Tier 1 suppliers including Collins Aerospace, Latecoere, Honeywell, Safran and others.
Overture will seat up to 80 passengers and travel at a speed of Mach 1.7, twice as fast as today’s commercial jets. The aircraft is being optimized to fly on 100% sustainable aviation fuel.
Boom’s order book for Overture stands at 130 aircraft, including orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines. The private company in June revealed it is already building and rig-testing hardware for the Symphony engines that will power Overture. A full-scale engine core is expected to be operational in late 2025.
Boom has also completed construction of a state-of-the-art Overture manufacturing facility in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Like the British Airways- and Air France-operated Concorde supersonic jet that debuted nearly 50 years ago, Boom’s slim fuselage will be space-constrained so it’s possible the hard product will be akin to today’s US domestic first class seats, as renderings on Boom’s website suggest. Lie-flats may not be out of the question, however, and there is an opportunity for Overture operators to differentiate with superior onboard dining, soft product and technology.
“During the approximately three and one half hours of Concorde’s transatlantic crossing, there was just enough time to enjoy a top-quality meal, skim through the international newspapers that had been provided on the jet-way side of the entry door, listen to some music on the plug-in headphones and gasp when the Machmeter displayed the magic figure of twice the speed of sound,” notes industry expert Jennifer Coutts Clay, who authored the “bible” for aircraft interiors, Jetliner Cabins, now on its 4th edition and available via an e-book app.
“In the second-generation supersonic era, given the all-powerful e-connectivity platforms now available, there will be a wealth of major new opportunities for airline managements to develop the scope and focus of the ‘halo-effect’ that is inherent in this high-flying market segment,” adds Coutts Clay, a former British Airways executive who was once responsible for the airline’s visual identity, including the implementation of design programs for exteriors and interiors of the Concorde.
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Featured image of XB-1 on its fifth test flight credited to Boom Supersonic
