Firm sets sights on supersonic flights
ENGLEWOOD, Colorado — Aviation industry leaders attending the 23rd annual Boyd Group International Aviation Forecast Summit got a glimpse of the future Saturday: Boom Supersonic presented a model of a test aircraft expected to lead to the return of speedy intercontinental travel.
And the head of the Colorado-based Boyd Group, aviation expert Mike Boyd, believes the plane could be game-changing for Las Vegas.
“A big chunk of them (Las Vegas visitors) are coming in to spend a lot of money,” Boyd said. “Do you think MGM Grand or Wynn wouldn’t want to charter an airplane like this for their high rollers? In a New York second.”
Blake Scholl, who designed the aircraft and founded Boom in September 2014, said his airliner would be able to fly from Washington to London in 3½ hours, instead of the more than seven hours it currently takes. A trip from San Francisco to Hawaii would take 2½ hours instead of five. A flight from Sydney to Los Angeles could be completed in just under seven hours instead of just under 15.
Scholl’s premise for the 55-passenger airliner he hopes to get off the ground by 2025 is “removing the barriers to
FLIGHTS
experiencing the planet” by transporting people in half the time it currently takes.
Baby boom
At a hangar at Centennial Airport in suburban Denver, early arrivals for the two-day Boyd conference saw a model of the XB-1, the first independently developed supersonic jet — and history’s fastest civil aircraft.
Boom says its airliner will be flown at Mach 2.2 (1,451 mph) with an all-business-class cabin where every seat has a large window and sits next to the center aisle.
Scholl said the XB-1, known by company employees as “Baby Boom,” is a two-seat test vehicle that will enable the company to refine its airliner design, ensuring a passenger aircraft which is efficient, reliable and safe.
Parts of the aircraft are being manufactured with lightweight carbon composites in San Diego and transported to Denver for assembly in Boom’s hangar at Centennial Airport.
Scholl said Baby Boom would fly by the end of next year. Investors already have put in $41 million to complete the design and construction of the XB-1, with Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic and Japan Airlines among the first to invest.
Japan Airlines put $10 million into Boom and pre-ordered 20 aircraft. Chinese travel company Ctrip also has invested in Boom.
Flight tests will be conducted at Mojave Air & Space Port in Southern California, with supersonic flight tests in a flight corridor near Edwards Air Force Base.
Ban challenge
There are still plenty of obstacles to overcome. Scholl said a hard no-haggle price tag of $200 million has been placed on every plane. A Boeing 777-300 jet can be purchased for about $180 million, he said.
There’s a political issue to overcome as well. The Federal Aviation
Administration has banned supersonic flights in U.S. airspace. Unless that policy changes, Boom jets would have to slow to less efficient subsonic speeds once they hit a