Tuesday was a historic day in commercial air travel and a promising one for those eager to embark on supersonic travel.
Boom Supersonic's XB-1 broke the sound barrier during a test flight at California's Mojave Air & Space Port this week, marking the first human-piloted civil supersonic flight since Concorde's retirement more than two decades ago.
The flight—piloted by Tristan "Geppetto" Brandenburg, Chief Test Pilot for Boom Supersonic—reached an altitude of 35,290 feet before accelerating to Mach 1.122 or approximately 750 mph.
The successful test flight took place in the same airspace where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in 1947.
According to Boom, "XB-1 has completed a rigorous series of 11 human-piloted test flights under increasingly challenging conditions to evaluate systems and aerodynamics" since its inaugural flight in March 2024.
XB-1's test program is laying the groundwork for Overture, which will carry 64-80 passengers at Mach 1.7—about twice the speed of today's airliners—on more than 600 global routes.
Carriers including American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines have already placed 130 orders and pre-orders for the supersonic aircraft, which are designed to run on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
"XB-1's supersonic flight demonstrates that the technology for passenger supersonic flight has arrived," Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl said in a statement. "A small band of talented and dedicated engineers has accomplished what previously took governments and billions of dollars. Next, we are scaling up the technology on XB-1 for the Overture supersonic airliner. Our ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone."
"Our discipline and methodical approach to this flight test program created the safety culture that made a safe and successful first supersonic flight possible," added Brandenburg. "With the lessons learned from XB-1, we can continue to build the future of supersonic travel."
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