‘New Concorde’ breaks sound barrier on first supersonic test flight

About 35,000 feet (10,670 metres) over the Mojave Desert, northwest of Los Angeles, Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 became the first privately funded airplane to break the sound barrier during a test flight on Tuesday.

“She was real happy supersonic,” Boom Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg said after landing, in a video posted by Boom Supersonic. “That’s the best she’s ever flown, was supersonic.”

After getting to altitude, Brandenburg opened up the test plane’s throttles, accelerating to Mach 1.1, or about 1360 km/h – faster than the speed at which sound travels.

The XB-1 has broken the sound barrier.

In 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first human to break the sound barrier when he pushed the Bell X-1 past Mach 1 during a flight over the Mojave Desert.

Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 is a stepping stone in its plan to develop a commercially viable supersonic airliner, the Overture, capable of carrying 64-80 passengers across the Atlantic in about 3½ hours.

The company has 130 orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines.

Last year, it completed construction on its Overture Superfactory in Greensboro, North Carolina, where it plans to build 66 Overture aircraft per year.

The X-1 is one-third of the size of the Overture passenger jet that the company plans to use for passenger flights. It hopes to ultimately achieve a cruising speed of Mach 1.7 – twice the speed of the fastest commercial aircraft today.

The Overture, which would carry about 65 passengers and cost about $400 million, according to Boom, has received outline orders from airlines including United and American.

Boom aims to produce 33 aircraft a year at its factory in North Carolina, which was completed in June. It intends to double that number when a second assembly line is added.

The Overture passenger jet will be three times bigger than the XB-1 demonstrator.

However, taking the project from the test stage to service entry will be a tough task, requiring billions of dollars in additional funding, including a yet-to-be-produced engine design.

Would-be rival Aerion collapsed in 2021 after backers including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Electric pulled out.

Boom may face an even more formidable barrier in the shape of airline commitments to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, as the industry comes under pressure to match reductions being achieved by carmakers.

Blake Scholl, who founded Boom in 2014, has nevertheless said there is no reason why the Overture shouldn’t run on the same sustainable aviation fuel that airlines are counting on to decarbonise their regular flights.

He puts the market at more than 1000 planes, based on the number of people flying business class today on routes where demand for supersonic travel would be sufficient to boost airline profits.

Bloomberg/The Telegraph, London