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DALLAS — Everyone loves speed because it gives us a thrill. That is why we watch Formula One (F1) races, drive fast supercars, and enjoy air travel. Commercial air travel again aims to be even faster and break the sound barrier.
Supersonic speed means the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound. Mach 1 refers to the speed of objects traveling at the speed of sound. Commercial jets are now limited to flying at subsonic speeds, or speeds less than the speed of sound. But there are a few companies that are working to bring supersonic aircraft back into the skies.
This is not the first time that aerospace companies have worked towards developing a supersonic jet. We know that in the 1960s, French, British, and Russian companies developed supersonic planes.
Today, we look at a detailed list of companies working on the next supersonic jets.
Boom Supersonic
Boom Technology Inc traded as Boom Supersonic is a Colorado-based company capable of designing and developing a supersonic airliner. The company was founded by Blake Scholl (CEO), Joe Wilding (Chief Engineer), and Josh Krall (CTO) in Denver in 2014.
In early 2016, they participated in the Y-Combinator startup incubation program and they got funding from Sam Altman, Seraph Group, Eight Partners, and others. And with this, the company progressed towards achieving goals driven to bring faster, more sustainable, and affordable travel for all.
After receiving its first round of funding, Boom secured investments from various VCs and financial institutions. In 2017, Continuity Fund, RRE Ventures, Palm Drive Ventures, 8VC, and Caffeinated Capital all invested US$33m. By April of that year, the company had successfully secured US$41m.
After seeing Boom's strong future aspects, Japan Airlines (JL) invested US$10m in December 2017. The capital was enough to build the first supersonic aircraft demonstrator, which they named XB-1 "Baby Boom."
XB-1 Baby Boom
The company unveiled its design by end of 2016, initially, the aircraft was expected to make its first subsonic flight by late 2017. The aircraft is powered by General Electric (GE) CJ610 turbojets. With sufficient funding they secured by mid-2017, they had enough to build and fly it.
Boom completed the initial design review in June 2017, then they load-tested the composite wing spar. By 2018, the aerodynamic design was ready, the horizontal tail was assembled and they took deliveries of engines. XB-1 design went through 3 sets of tests in a wind tunnel. Boom completed all three sets of tests by December 2018, and Concorde took 10 years to complete these tests.
During the 2019 Paris Air Show, Blake Scholl announced the date for the first flight was pushed out to 2020 and it kept on getting delayed due to structure and safety-related issues.
On the 7th of October 2020, the company released a promotional on XB-1 with an announcement to make its maiden flight by 2021. By end of 2022, Boom has completed around 80% of pre-flight testing checks and we can expect its first flight sooner.
The XB-1 Baby Boom prototype is powered by three jet engines with the ability to reach Mach 2.2 and has a range of more than 1,000 nm (1,900 km). It is constructed from lightweight composites, titanium, and A286 stainless steel alloys.
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Overture
The XB-1 is built to carry out necessary tests and act as a foundation for the much larger supersonic airliner. Boom Overture is a supersonic airliner with a proposed speed of Mach 1.7, a capacity of 65–88 passengers, and a range of 4,250 nm (7,870 km). The company is planning to build an aircraft with Delta wings similar to Concorde, but it will be built using composite materials.
Boom Supersonic has developed more than 600 supersonic routes that Overture can fly. Additionally, it predicts the demand for 1,000 such airliners with Business class fares. According to the company's website, it can travel the same route in slightly more than half the time it takes now. For example, New York to Frankfurt can be reached in 4 hours and 15 minutes, Los Angeles to Sydney in just 8 hours and 30 minutes, and Singapore to Dubai in around 4 hours.
It began working on its design and wooden mockups in March 2016. By October 2016, the company had stretched its initial design to seat up to 50 passengers with an additional 10 seats, and it had added a third engine to enable ETOPS with up to 180 minutes of diversion time. Since then, it has made many upgrades to its original designs to produce superior aircraft.
At the 2019 Paris Airshow, Boom's CEO announced the delay in the Overture rollout from 2023 to 2027. In July 2022, Boom Supersonic unveiled its updated Overture aircraft design with four engines and a tailed delta wing at the Farnborough International Airshow 2022. Additionally, Northrop Grumman was also announced as a new partner in the development of the aircraft’s special mission versions.
If we visit Boom's official website, we can clearly see the expected timeline for the Overture project. In 2022, the final design was revealed. 2024 saw the production launch, with 2026 for the rollout, 2027 for the first flight, and 2029 for type certifications.
Overture has also received orders from renowned airlines, including from two entities that placed firm orders. In 2016, Virgin Group placed an optional order for 10 aircraft, similarly, 10 aircraft optional orders have been placed by unnamed European customers. In 2017, the company received optional orders for 51 aircraft from an unidentified customer, who also placed optional orders for 20 aircraft.
In June 2021, United Airlines (UA) placed an order for 15 firm aircraft, while 35 were optional. In August 2022, American Airlines (AA) placed the biggest order for Boom supersonic aircraft for 20 firm aircraft with 40 as an option.
Symphony
In September 2022 UK engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce (RR) pulled out of the supersonic race, withdrawing its contribution to the Overture project. Three months later, Boom announced it would collaborate with three key players in the market, including Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT), GE Additive, and StandardAero, for the creation and maintenance of the Symphony engine.
Symphony is a medium-bypass Turbofan engine in the phase of development. The turbofan is designed to generate a thrust of 35,000 pounds (160 kN) and operate exclusively on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
Apart from the Boom-led engine collaboration, the company has links with Boeing and UA for its supersonic aircraft development and launch strategy.
Boom last year announced the plan to build a 400,000 sq. ft of manufacturing plant on a 65-acre land at Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina. With this facility, they can put turn their virtual design of supersonic airliner into reality. The company has a strong management team and expert advisory council members to guide them toward success.
By making strategic partnerships with existing aerospace and technology companies, Boom Technology is on the path to making the first modern supersonic airliner of the 21st century.
Lockheed Martin and NASA
Lockheed Martin, an American company, has its roots in the aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology sectors. In March 1995, with the merger between Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta, Lockheed Martin was formed. The company is one of the world's largest in the industries in which it operates.
The company is working on X-59 QueSST ("Quiet SuperSonic Technology") under shadow to produce an experimental supersonic aircraft for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator project.
X-59 QueSST
Lockheed Martin was awarded a preliminary design contract by NASA in 2016, and later in 2018, the company bagged a US$247.5m contract to design, build, and deliver in late 2021 the Low-Boom X-59 QueSST.
If we talk about the salient features of the X-59 aircraft, it will be 94 ft (29 m) long with a 29.5 ft (9.0 m) wingspan. To power the jet and achieve a speed of Mach 1.5, the company will utilize the General Electric F414 engine. The company will use existing structural elements to support the development of a supersonic demonstrator.
Remember that the X-59 QueSST will act as a foundational demonstrator for the development of an advanced and practical supersonic jet. Because of a ban on flying commercial supersonic aircraft over land in certain countries, the company has to tackle a sonic boom caused when aircraft fly above Mach 1. Sonic booms produce massive amounts of sound waves that resemble an explosion or a thunderclap.
Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works team is well aware of the sonic boom, and that's why X-59 will be used to collect community response data on the acceptability of a quiet sonic boom generated by the unique design of the aircraft. Data will assist NASA in providing sufficient information to the regulatory body in order to establish an acceptable commercial supersonic noise standard and lift the ban on commercial supersonic travel over land.
The company expected the first test flight of the X-59 in 2021, with commercial flight tests by 2023. But due to COVID challenges, they are postponing the scheduled flights. In a recent development, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works® carried out the installation of the General Electric F-414-GE-100 engine on the X-59 QueSST. The powerplant is capable of producing 22,000 pounds of thrust.
Lockheed X-59 team expects to complete a series of ground tests and finally the first flight in 2023. NASA expects to fly the X-59 over communities around the United States by 2025. However, the company has not provided any subtle data on when NASA's Low Boom will be able to produce a commercial supersonic plane.
Hermeus Corporation
Hermeus was founded by Skyler Shuford in 2018 to develop a hypersonic aircraft that can achieve a speed of Mach 5. The company aims to achieve a speed twice that of Concorde, which enables aircraft to fly in just 90 minutes over the Atlantic.
To achieve this milestone, the company has partnered with government agencies, including the US Air Force and NASA, to develop a hypersonic jet. We reached out to Skyler and took part in an exclusive interview to learn more about the company's mission.
https://airwaysmag.com/hermeus-hypersonic-airliners/
Other Companies
In 2018, Boeing unveiled a hypersonic passenger airliner capable of flying near Mach 6. The capacity will be higher than that of a business jet and lower than that of a Boeing 737 aircraft. However, the company has not made any announcements about the project since its launch.
Apart from these supersonic projects carried out by US-based Boom, NASA, Lockheed Martin, Hermeus, and other startups, there are other countries like Russia, France, and Japan working or have worked extensively in the 21st century to produce a successful supersonic aircraft.
Russia-based TsAGI, which earlier developed the TU-144, showed a scale model of its supersonic business jet in 2017 at the Moscow air show. The aircraft will achieve a speed of about 2,100 km/h (1,300 mph) during the cruise phase and be capable of producing low sonic booms, permitting flights over land. However, there is less information available in the public domain due to the secrecy of the project.
In 2003, the French-based EADS- the former parent company of Airbus announced a partnership with Japanese companies to develop a larger, faster replacement for Concorde. To support the claim, in 2005 JAXA (Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency), undertook aerodynamic testing of a scale model of an airliner designed to carry 300 passengers at Mach 2. In 2021 JAXA announced a partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Subaru to develop supersonic planes by 2030.
There are a few other companies working under the radar to reduce air travel time. Despite having technical, economical, and environmental hurdles, they are in a race to build the first supersonic airliner of the 21st century.
The Supersonic Era 2.0
If we talk about a supersonic airliner that actually flew, the number gets reduced to only two such types. One is the Concorde, and the other is the Tupolev Tu-144. By the 1960s, aerospace companies were in a race to build a supersonic commercial airliner. The idea came from military supersonic jets, and the aircraft manufacturers utilized the technology and knowledge to produce viable commercial supersonic aircraft.
In January 1962, the Soviet government published an article delving into the Tupolev Tu-144 concept. In November 1962, French and British companies joined forces to start working on Concorde, and the rest is history.
Today's companies face their own challenges, the most pressing being the sonic boom. These companies are experimenting and creating prototypes that produce less noise. Do you think that supersonic travel will be possible again? Do let us know by commenting on our social media channels.
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Featured image: Boom Supersonic
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