A pivotal step in Boom Technology’s hope to bring back supersonic travels
Boom Technology, a company that hopes to bring back commercial supersonic travel, which ended after the retirement of Concorde, has just completed the inaugural flight of its XB-1 demonstrator. Nicknamed Baby Boom, the plane is a one-third-scale demonstrator for Overture, the final supersonic jet that will carry passengers (1). The flight took place at the Mojave Air & Space Port in California in the same airspace as many other monumental flights, like the Bell X-1, which first broke the sound barrier in 1947 (2). Piloted by Boom Chief Test Pilot Bill “Doc” Shoemaker, the flight lasted 12 minutes in the air, and the demonstrator aircraft flew to a maximum altitude of 7,120 feet at a maximum speed of 238 knots (1).
The flight was originally scheduled for 2017, but years of delay due to safety and design changes pushed back the XB-1’s maiden flight to March 22, 2024 (3). Despite the delays, the test flight was a success, and the aircraft completed all of its objectives (2). Boom used the plane to test the many technologies essential to making the final commercial airliner successful (3). The flight validated the plane’s flight characteristics, including the carbon fiber composite design, which Boom’s engineers had optimized using thousands of simulations. XB-1 also features an augmented reality vision system that gives pilots better visibility over the long nose (2).
Boom still has many hurdles to overcome, including securing funding that could cost upward of $8 billion to build the final, full-scale Overture. Still, the recent flight test is a major stepping stone to demonstrate to investors and the public that progress is being made (3).
References
- Boom Supersonic. (2024, March 25). Boom – XB-1. Boom. Retrieved from https://boomsupersonic.com/xb-1.
- Boom Supersonic. (2024, March 22). Boom – FlyBy – Boom Announces Successful Flight of XB-1 Demonstrator Aircraft. Boom. Retrieved from https://boomsupersonic.com/flyby/inaugural-first-flight-xb1-supersonic-demonstrator.
- Stevens, T. (2024, March 22). Boom’s first test flight could signal the return of supersonic air travel. The Verge; The Verge. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/22/24108850/boom-supersonic-first-test-flight-xb1-demonstrator.
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