Boom chief fights doubts over bid to revive supersonic jet travel

Boom Supersonic insists it has the demand and technology to make ultrafast jet travel profitable almost 20 years after Concorde was retired, as it fights back against intense industry scepticism. “There’s a need for hundreds, if not thousands of these aeroplanes,” said CE Blake Scholl. Boom claims to have identified 600 global routes where airlines could operate the Overture, a plane which would nearly halve the flying time between some destinations. New York to London would go from 6.5 hours to 3.5 hours, while Tokyo to Seattle would drop to 4.5 hours from 8.5 hours. The absence of an engine maker for the Overture is one of several factors fuelling aviation industry doubts over whether it will ever take to the skies. Scholl said Boom was poised to make an “exciting engine announcement” in the coming months, but declined to say whether it had identified a partner for the project. “It’s not just about the engine technology,” Scholl added. “It’s about some breakthroughs in the sustainability and breakthroughs in the business model that will lead to better economics.” Denver-based Boom is developing a four-engine jet with a maximum cruising speed of Mach 1.7, or 70% faster than the speed of sound. Its subsonic speed would be Mach 0.94, greater than the Mach 0.75 to 0.85 of traditional commercial jetliners. The 200ft-long aircraft would carry 65 to 80 passengers across a range of 4,250 nautical miles with a full payload. By comparison a wide-body Boeing 787-8 can seat almost 250 passengers and travel 7,305 nautical miles. Boom has billed the Overture as “sustainable” because it is “designed to run on 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel”, or SAF. The company has an order book of 130 jets. Last week, American Airlines put down a deposit on 20 Overtures with an option for 40 more, while Japan Airlines pre-ordered 20 aircraft in 2017. United Airlines became the first US carrier to order Overtures in 2021. Story has more.<br/>