This year’s Farnborough Airshow saw Boom Supersonic presenting the refined design of the Overture – the world’s fastest airliner, optimised for speed, safety and sustainability. Boom Founder and CEO, Blake Scholl proudly described the new design as “looking like Concorde and a 747 had a baby.”
Carrying 65-80 passengers at twice the speed of today’s airlines (according to its manufacturers it will fly from London to New York in 3.5 hours) the Overture will run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and will fly Mach 1.7 over water with a range of 4,250 nautical miles. Production launch for the aircraft is on track for 2024, while the first flight is planned for 2026 with first deliveries and passenger flights in 2029.
The aircraft’s updated configuration combines a number of engineering innovations in aerodynamics, noise reduction and overall performance. Key features include: Four-engine design; quieter operation; contoured fuselage; gull wings; carbon composite construction; and net-zero carbon as will fly on 100%.
“Aviation has not seen a giant leap in decades,” said Scholl. “Overture is revolutionary in its design and it will fundamentally change how we think about distance. With more than 600 routes across the globe, Overture will make the world dramatically more accessible for tens of millions of passengers.”
The company also announced that it will begin outfitting the Iron Bird, a new 70,000 sq. ft. hardware ground test faciltiy in Centennial, Colorado to house its first full-scale Overture testing model and flight deck simulators.
In addition to partnerships with Collins Aerospace, Eaton and Safran Landing as suppliers for key systems such as landing gear, fuel and inerting, avionics and ice protection, Boom Supersonic also announced a landmark agreement with Northrop Grumman to develop special mission variants of its aircraft for the US Government and allies.
