Boom: America’s answer to Concorde prepares for first supersonic flight #boom #supersonic #shorts

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The return of supersonic travel has been remarkably slow for something faster than the speed of sound, but a major milestone is set to be hit on January 28.

Boom Supersonic, the American company building what promises to be the world’s fastest airliner, is preparing to break the sound barrier for the first time with a test flight at 7:45 a.m. local time in Mojave, California.

The XB-1 demonstrator aircraft, which has completed 11 successful test flights since it first took to the air in March 2024, is the precursor to the development of Boom’s supersonic commercial airliner, Overture.

The hotly anticipated plane already has 130 orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines.

A livestream will record what should be a historic moment for the first civil supersonic jet built in America and the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet.

The aircraft, which is usually flown by Boom’s chief test pilot Tristan “Gepetto” Brandenburg, will — if all goes to plan — accelerate to Mach 1.1 (around 844 miles per hour / 1,358 kilometers per hour) after reaching target altitude.

The fastest speed the XB-1 has reached so far is Mach 0.95, just below the supersonic threshold of Mach 1, which it hit during its last test flight on January 10.

Decades of waiting
When the XB-1 takes off from the Mojave Air and Space Port on its latest flight it will be in the same historic airspace where legendary pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in 1947.

It’s now almost 55 years since the 002 prototype for Concorde first flew at Mach 1 on March 25, 1970, and more than 21 years since commercial supersonic travel ended with the Anglo-French airliner’s final flight in November 2003.

There have been several challengers in the supersonic space while the remaining Concordes gather dust at museums in the UK, the US and France, but so far no one has succeeded.

Boom Supersonic’s ambitions remain high. CEO Blake Scholl told CNN last year that he expects supersonic planes to replace conventional airliners in our lifetime.

“I very much believe in the return of supersonic air travel, and ultimately to bring it to every passenger on every route. And that’s not something that takes place overnight,” he said in March 2024.

Boom’s plan is that Overture will be in operation before the end of the decade, carrying 64 to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7, about twice the speed of today’s subsonic airliners.

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