More than twenty years since Concorde’s retirement, supersonic travel looks set to return to the commercial aviation sector, after a successful test flight by a US start-up broke the sound barrier earlier this week.
On 28 January 2025, on the leeward side of California’s Sierra Nevada, the peaceful and clear skies over the Mojave Desert were shattered by the first-ever US-manufactured civil supersonic jet: the XB-1, by the aptly-named Boom Supersonic.
A breakthrough for civil engineering
After take off from the Mojave Air & Space Port (also known for Virgin Galactic’s space tourism ventures), the Boom Supersonic test flight soared to 35,290 feet (10,750 metres), then off it went, accelerating to Mach 1.122 (or, 1,207 km/h). It’s a significant feat for a private, civil aviation firm to smash the sound barrier – something that has been the preserve of governments and military agencies until now. The quite literal “breakthrough” means Boom is now closer than ever to the commercialisation of an aircraft it says will be “the world’s fastest airliner”, to be known as Overture.
History in the making. On Jan. 28, 2025, XB-1 officially broke the sound barrier.
— Boom Supersonic (@boomaero) January 28, 2025
Flying Mach 1.122 (652 KTAS) at 35,290 ft. over the Mojave Desert, Boom’s supersonic demonstrator jet ushered in a new era of supersonic flight.
Watch the full recorded livestream:… pic.twitter.com/npCl2wYaFV
Whether the craft will sound as sweet to those on the ground as a Tchaikovsky composition, or more like cannon fire, remains to be heard. It was noise complaints and costly operations, as well as low demand in the wake of a deadly crash in 2000, and the aftermath of 9/11, that did for Concorde. Boom aims to avoid the noise issues at least, by doing away with loud afterburners and using a bespoke turbofan engine that supposedly complies with today’s aviation noise standards.
Supersonic travel for all, at $5,000-a-ticket
The Overture, for which a 66-planes-per-year superfactory has already been built in Greensboro, North Carolina, will be three times as large as the XB-1 and able to carry between 64 and 80 passengers at Mach 1.7 – meaning it could do New York to London in three and a half hours. That’s just enough time for supersonic jetsetters to watch Gone with the Wind, if they can afford the roughly $5,000 (€4,795) ticket, that is.
Yet Boom founder and CEO, Blake Scholl, believes the company’s “ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone”. After accomplishing “what previously took governments and billions of dollars”, the next steps are for the firm’s “small band of talented and dedicated engineers” to scale up the XB-1 technology. They must work fast to beat NASA and Lockheed Martin who have already developed a “quiet supersonic” prototype. Boeing meanwhile says has its longterm sights on a hypersonic craft that, with Mach 5 capability, will make the Overture look like it’s standing still.
