Boom Is Serious About Building the Supersonic Passenger Jet of the Future

[pmaitra]

Boom Is Serious About Building the Supersonic Passenger Jet of the Future

Source: Popular Mechanics

Boom (C0ncept)

And now there's this. Boom, a small operation out of Colorado, might be able to succeed where others have failed. The company hopes to build a prototype plane that can fly at Mach 2.2 (1,688 mph) by the end of 2017. Boom plans to use existing engines and composite materials to build its aircraft.

The other thing that Boom has is a partner with significant resources and deep pockets: Sir Richard Branson. It was announced today that Virgin Group has signed an option to buy 10 planes from Boom for roughly $2 billion if everything goes according to plan. Virgin Galactic's spacecraft manufacturer The Spaceship Company will also be assisting with the design and development of the prototype plane.

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Former SSTs:

Tupolev-144, 1968, USSR

Concorde, 1969, UK & France

 

[pmaitra]

Centennial’s Boom Supersonic partners with Japan Airlines on orders, $10M investment

Boom Supersonic
The completed design of Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 Demonstrator aircraft, which will be assembled and tested at Centennial Airport in 2018. The future passenger plane that will travel at Mach 2.2, or 2.2 times the speed of sound. The new design was unveiled at the Paris Air Show on June 20, 2017.

The Denver-area supersonic aircraft developer, headquartered at Centennial Airport, said Japan Airlines will invest $10 million in the company and collaborate with Boom to refine the aircraft’s design and passenger experience. JAL also gets dibs on 20 aircraft orders for jets that can fly 2.2 times the speed of sound, or 1,461 miles per hour. Typical airplanes are more in the range of 650 miles per hour.

This year, its 4-foot-long model plane passed wind-tunnel tests conducted by the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University. In June, it showed off a prototype, the two-seater XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator that could take off from Centennial Airport before the end of 2018.

JAL is not the first airline to place an order. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, one of the first to work with Boom, has an option to buy at least 10 planes at $200 million each. In June, Scholl said Boom had orders for 76 planes that includes five world airlines.

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From what is understood so far, and based on information from here and here, this aircraft will be powered by three ~13 kN engines and will seat 55 people.