Testing of Boom technology demonstrator proceeding apace

Boom Supersonic, the American company about the highly speculative business of designing and producing a supersonic airliner dubbed the Boom Overture, has reportedly achieved a number of milestones vis-à-vis the development of its XB-1 Baby Boom, a one-third-scale technology demonstrator devised to vet technologies salient to the planned airliner.

Rolled out in October 2020, the XB-1 comprises advanced fibre-composites, bleedingedge avionics, and digitally optimised aerodynamics ostensibly conducive to sustained and sustainable supersonic flight. The aircraft is alleged to be capable of attaining and maintaining cruise flight at Mach 2.2 (1,455-knots) over a claimed range of one-thousand nautical-miles. The machine is powered by a trio of 4,300-lbf General Electric J85-15 singleshaft turbojet engines.

In April 2023, the XB-1 was moved from Boom's Centennial, Colorado hangar to California's Mojave Air and Space Port, where the contraption has since undergone extensive groundtesting, to include taxi-testing which got underway the week of 20 August. Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl stated: "The recent progress made towards XB-1's first flight reflects the team's collective efforts to build and safely fly the world's first independently developed supersonic jet."

In addition to ongoing ground-testing, the XB-1-following a comprehensive technical inspection, has been granted an experimental airworthiness certificate by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The agency has also issued letters of authorisation permitting Boom chief test-pilot Bill 'Doc' Shoemaker and test-pilot Tristan 'Gepetto' Brandenburg to fly the XB-1. Moreover, letters of agreement allowing flights of the aircraft over the Mojave desert are in place with pertinent airspace authorities.