US company plans supersonic passenger aircraft

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Boom Supersonic is aiming for an inaugural flight for their XB-1 prototype plane next year.

The Denver, Colorado-based company's goal is for a supersonic airliner that can fly 2.6 times faster than other commercial airliner, halving the seven-hour flight between New York and London, flying at 2,300 km/h and carrying 55 passengers.

The graceful Concorde cruised at 2,160 km/h hour and is still much lamented by enthusiasts following its retirement in 2003.

Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl believes they've learnt from Concorde's failures and can deliver supersonic air travel affordably.

"Concorde was a technical success and an economic failure," he says.

"It was a Cold War era glory project, a joint venture between two governments, the goal was to beat the Soviets, not to build a practical supersonic airplane."

"Fifty years later, we've got new technology, carbon fiber composites, turbo fan engines, which allow you to do supersonic for 75 percent less than Concorde took."

Boom is currently constructing a demonstrator aircraft, named the XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator, at its base in Denver, Colorado. They hope that will take to the skies by the end of next year.

"I think Supersonic can only come from a newcomer," says Scholl.

"If you're Boeing or Airbus, your economic incentives are to iterate on the same product you've been making for decades. For supersonic to come, it's going to have to come from a new company."

Boom says it's currently looking at sites to produce its 55-passenger, Mach-2.2 airliner.

The hope to begin transporting paying passengers by the end of 2023.

Scholl says they anticipate a demand for between 1,000 and 2,000 passenger jets, so the location would need to have a manufacturing footprint capable of supporting airliner rate production.

Given the large aviation industry footprint in the UAE, it could well be a contender.

"We take a lot of inspiration from SpaceX and Tesla," says Scholl. "Really from Elon [Musk] has been able to accomplish in stagnant industries. Tesla was the first new car company in decades, Boom is the first new commercial aircraft company in 95 years."

Aviation industry analyst Andrew Charlton says Boom's ambitions should be taken seriously, but they may struggle to attract enough airlines who want to use its super-fast jet.

"What Boom will do, I think, is make some of those really inconvenient sectors, six-hour long sectors - which is Los Angeles, New York by the way of course, but also across the Atlantic - suddenly a two-hour sector or a three-hour sector, which makes it a lot more comfortable for people," he says.

"They think they can cost it at standard business class fees, in which case I don't think it's pie in the sky. They will find the number of airlines in the world for whom this is an attractive product limited, which will make life difficult. Of course, trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, that's two killer apps for them, but again, how many airlines will be buying, that's a more complicated question."

The biennial Dubai Airshow runs 12-16 November.

Source(s): AP