SUPERSONIC AIRLINERS FOR JAPAN AIRLINES

Japan Airlines ( JAL) has entered into a strategic partnership with Boom Supersonic, the Mach 2-plus airliner developer and has placed purchase options for up to 20 aircraft. The Japanese flag carrier becomes the second airline after Virgin Atlantic to reveal its support of the Denver-based supersonic airliner project, which is targeting entry into service in the mid-2020s. Together with the ten options announced by Virgin in mid-2017, the JAL commitment represents almost half of the 76 options received by Boom to date. Three additional operators for the remaining 46 aircraft remain unidentified. The Boom concept is targeting supersonic travel at current business-class prices by bringing together a 55-seat design using structures, advanced aerodynamics and propulsion technology that was not available in the 1960s for the development of the Anglo-French Concorde, the world’s first operationally successful supersonic airliner. The deltawinged Boom trijet design is intended to rely on a ten percent higher speed than Concorde to achieve high use and shorter sector times on 4,500nm routes, most of which will be flown over water.

The partnership with JAL includes an investment of $10 million in Boom, which is particularly significant, says Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of the start-up aerospace company formerly known as Boom Technology. “This is the first time in history an airline has put real cash into a supersonic transport aircraft programme and to us it is a commitment and a demonstration that the customer interest is real,” he said.