BOOM OVER

There’s a new superjet on the horizon

One company called Boom Technology is actively building a Supersonic Transport jet or SST as the pandemic rages. Nearly two decades ago the Concorde could fly twice the speed of sound – around 2,100kph – was retired due to a disastrous accident. Since then, no aircraft builder has built a supersonic jet to take its place. Until now.

The new jet envisioned and created by Boom Technology is called ‘Boom Overture’ – which is designed to fly even faster than the ill-fated Concorde. Engineers plan on the jet reaching a maximum speed of Mach 2.2, or 2,717 kph. Under ordinary conditions, the speed of sound in air is about 343 meters per second. In basic terms that mean you could travel a kilometre in 2.9 seconds. The company is carefully moving through phases of development and a test version, known as ‘Baby Boom XB-1’, will soon make its debut flight in the Mojave Desert.

Room for Boom

Boom Technology announced in July that the Baby Boom or Overture demonstrator (a scaled-down vehicle to prove the airworthiness of the design) would have its virtual roll out in October 2020. The small-sized supersonic craft will be tested in powered flight at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port sometime in 2021. The tests will help prove the design, capability, and operation of the overall concept of the project, after which a full-scale version of the passenger aircraft will be built with flights expected to begin by the mid-2020s.