Boom Supersonic jets faster-than-sound XB-1 jet in 2021
The company recently announced that Aviation Startup Boom Supersonic plans to fly a supersonic jet demonstrator in 2021. In an October statement, the XB-1 demonstrator will be 71 feet (22 metres) long and made of carbon composite, allowing it to remain resistant to flying faster than the speed of sound, the company said.
The ultimate goal is to create an aircraft flying at Mach 2.2, or 2.2 times the speed of sound. In a statement, Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl said, “XB-1 is an important milestone towards the development of our commercial airliner, Overture, making sustainable supersonic flight mainstream and fostering human connection,”
The company expects to perform full-scale flight checks for passenger flights in 2025 later in this decade if XB-1 is scheduling and Overture’s development stays on schedule.
The goal is to cut the standard time for cross-ocean aircraft travel in half. For example, it would take 3 hours and 45 minutes for a trip from Paris to Montreal, half of the standard 7 hours and 15 minutes available today, Boom said on its website.
Three General Electric J85–15 engines, an ergonomic cockpit optimised for high-speed flights and a delta wing for stability at takeoff and landing are other design features of the XB-1.
Boom is privately funded and has gone through several venture capital fundraising rounds, including a 2017 round of $51 million and a 2019 round of $100 million. To build a fleet of supersonic aircraft, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has pre-ordered Boom aircraft.
Branson established the Virgin Atlantic airline and Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company.
Boom founded its first air and spacecraft programmes in 2014, and employs more than 140 full-time employees, Boom said. Boom said. Two decades after the suspension of two supersonic airlines due to continuing expenses and the complication of maintaining a high-speed airline business, the company is taking part in forthcoming flight demonstrations.
Concorde was in service between 1969 and 2003, the supersonic British-French passenger. Three years after the 2000 crash, Air France Flight 4590 killed all passengers and crew during a major aviation industry downturn following terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 Sept. 2001, Concorde was permanently grounded.
The Soviet Union’s rival, the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 passenger airplane, was operated in the 1970s only for a few years from 1968 to 1999. While the programme was terminated in 1983, existing aircraft were used for research and treatment later in his career.