Looking back at my blog, I was surprised to see how many posts I've done about Boom Supersonic, which is a start-up aiming to get a supersonic airplane back into commercial service. One of their milestones was getting their test plane to break the sound barrier. They've been going ever faster in their test flights, and just recently they made it.
Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 goes supersonic for the first
This article has full video coverage of the historic flight.
NASA even got a picture of it:
The real significance, if you read this next article (it's short) is that there was no sonic boom heard on the ground. (Hence the title of this post.) That means that they can fly supersonic across the country, something the Concorde couldn't do, and something that makes commercial supersonic air travel much more likely.
Sign me up!
The last part of the article says this:
"XB-1’s second supersonic flight marked the conclusion of its groundbreaking flight test program, and the historic aircraft will now return to her birthplace in Denver, Colorado. Boom will now focus its full efforts on scaling XB-1 learnings and technology to build the Overture supersonic airliner, which already has 130 orders and pre-orders from United Airlines, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines. In 2024, Boom completed construction on the Overture Superfactory in Greensboro, North Carolina, which will scale to produce 66 Overture aircraft per year."
That all sounds great. So here's hoping that Boom doesn't go bust.
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