Boom Supersonic marked the completion of the Overture Superfactory in Greensboro, North Carolina. Located at the Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO), this facility is the first supersonic airliner factory in the United States.
The Overture Superfactory will produce Boom’s Overture supersonic passenger jet, which is designed to seat between 64 and 80 passengers and fly up to 4,250 nautical miles (7,867 kilometers) at a cruising speed of Mach 1.7. The factory is scheduled to begin production of the Supersonic Transport (SST) aircraft in 2024.
“Construction of the Overture Superfactory represents a major milestone toward ensuring the United States’ continued leadership in aerospace manufacturing,” said Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic. “Supersonic flight will transform air travel, and Overture provides a much-needed innovative alternative for airlines across the globe.”
The factory can produce 33 aircraft annually, valued at over $6 billion, with plans to double this capacity. It will also serve as an airline delivery center.
According to the company, its order book stands at 130 aircraft, including orders and pre-orders from major airlines such as American Airlines, Japan Airlines and United Airlines.
On March 22, 2024, Boom Supersonic successfully tested the XB-1 at subsonic speeds. During that test, conducted at the Mojave test ground in California, the aircraft reached an altitude of 7,120 feet and speeds of up to 238 knots (273 miles per hour).
The following month, the manufacturer received a Special Flight Authorization (SFA) from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct supersonic flight tests.
7 comments
This is all so puzzling. American aerospace companies were able to build and test full size supersonic aircraft in the early 1950s then get them into production and service in 2 years. Now it takes a decade or longer just to build a meaningless miniature that does not resemble the design or size of the planned full size aircraft. The engines aren’t the ones that overture will use, the design isn’t even close and they have only been able to achieve a top speed that compares favourably with the Lockheed Electra turboprop airliner of the 1950s. So far it’s all somewhat of a joke, I’m amazed that anyone is still covering Boom. I mean they haven’t even started to build a prototype because they have no engines.
I was going to write something similar and you saved me the trouble. You got it spot on.
@Chris – Some good points. Boom wants to 1) make the planes fuel efficent at 1.7 Mach, and 2) make sure the plane doesn’t create public-hating sonic booms. The engineering around both of those is the challenge. Also this is a VC startup – not the easiest way to build planes.
Amazing that there is anyone in the world dumb enough to believe that this remote controlled toy has anything at all to do with commercial supersonic passenger flights, let alone anyone so stupendously stupid enough to find this absolute garbage. Unless these folks have a way to violate the laws of physics, supersonic air travel is a thing of the past and these greed driven crooks know it.
Shame that some of these comments are so uninformed and cynical. When you’ve got multiple nations throwing funding at a project for prestige, things will go considerably quicker than a startup company with the support of a few airlines and industry players. The FAA has such stringent requirements for any airframe, so there are tons of hurdles to clear. If some of those can be accomplished with a demonstrator, that saves time/money/resources/etc.
To the comment from earlier today, you seem to know the least about what’s going on, with your guess that this is remotely controlled. It’s a manned aircraft intended to get flight envelope data to drive the final design of the commercial product.
Thanks Jared ! That you rightly cleared up every thing .
I was always sad that Concord is one example where we can say that that was technical roll back in the history .3.5 hours to 7 huors again.
I recall a lot of similar negativity when a startup claimed to be able to make a reusable self landing launch vehicle, and all the monolithic aerospace giants said it couldn’t be done.
But that startup is doing it, and the monoliths are barely able to get their conventional designs off the pad.
Unlike the 1950s, modern commercial air travel requires a gross quantity of bureaucratic nonsense. You would not believe the amount of paperwork and fees required to get a simple bolt FAA certified, but an entire airframe? Also, even if you had a billionaire willing to toss money at it, apparently blowing up several airliners during development doesn’t build public trust, even if it provides more usable data faster than any other method.
There are several supersonic startups, only one has a working testbed, and a manufacturing facility.
For the last several years airlines have been expanding their upper class seating because the market is there (I maintain/modify commercial aircraft for a living). The market has proven there are plenty of people willing to pay exorbitant fees to get there in comfort, they will definitely pay to get there in half the time.