Supersonic passenger jet of the future breaks sound barrier in test flight

The world’s first independently developed supersonic jet, the XB-1, has broken the sound barrier in a test flight above the Mojave Desert in California. The plane on Tuesday reached an altitude of more than 10km during the test before accelerating to Mach 1.1 (1,358kph) – past the speed of sound. XB-1’s supersonic flight marks the first time an independently developed jet has broken the sound barrier. Boom Supersonic is testing the jet as a prototype to develop the Overture plane in the next decade, which will carry 64 to 80 passengers at about twice the speed of today’s subsonic aircraft and run on up to 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Two decades after Concorde’s retirement, the XB-1 marks the return of a civil supersonic aircraft to the skies and paves the way for the revival of mainstream supersonic travel. Carriers including American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines have already lodged 130 orders for the plane. The company is also working the US government to determine how it could be used for defence purposes. After its inaugural flight in March 2024, XB-1 completed a rigorous series of 11 human-piloted test flights under increasingly challenging conditions to evaluate systems and aerodynamics. Over the course of the flight test campaign, the XB-1 team systematically expanded flight speeds through subsonic, transonic and supersonic.<br/>