The Concorde was noisy, fuel-inefficient, and very expensive. But it remains the only plane to achieve supersonic commercial flight. From 1976 to 2003, this fleet of 14 aircraft shuttled passengers across the Atlantic Ocean in a few hours at speeds above 1,300 mph.
There were reasons the Concorde halted. Its thunderous booms meant the plane wasn’t permitted to fly supersonic over land, narrowing profitable routes. And its fuel demands elevated its ticket price: By the 1990s, round-trip fare on the airliner could cost around $20,000 in today’s money.
21 years later, a Colorado startup called Boom Supersonic promises to achieve what the Concorde didn’t by providing long-term commercial supersonic flight. And the company will achieve or fail in this goal from North Carolina.
On Monday, Boom completed construction on its first manufacturing and testing facility, a 179,000-square-foot hangar at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro. In exchange for promising to create at least 1,760 jobs and invest half a billion dollars at the site, Boom received up to $87 million in potential payroll tax benefits from the state. To win the project over Florida, North Carolina also appropriated $56 million upfront for Boom to construct two aircraft hangars.
Boom’s inaugural plane concept is called Overture, and in March, the company completed the first flight of its demonstrator plane at a subsonic speed. Over the next year, the company will install testing equipment at its new Greensboro facility, and in 2029, Boom hopes the Overture will be certified to transport passengers at speeds the Concorde once reached.
So, why will this time be different? Why does Boom believe it won’t experience the same fate as the Concorde?
The potential hidden savings of going supersonic
Firstly, Boom says technological advances over the past 20 years have enhanced the business model.
“Modern computing means more accurate aerodynamic and structural analysis,” a Boom spokesperson said in an email to The News & Observer.
Like other modern planes, the Overture will also be made with composite materials instead of metal, which makes aircraft lighter and more fuel efficient. And while the Concorde used afterburners to accelerate during liftoff, Boom won’t, which should further reduce fuel costs, says Daniel Bubb, a former airline pilot who teaches courses on aviation at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“That’s the biggest step,” he said. “How do you make it fuel efficient? How do you make it relatively affordable?”
Relative is an operative word. At the ribbon-cutting event in Greensboro on Monday, Boom CEO Blake Scholl said round-trip flights on Overture will start around $5,000. The company will initially target clients who currently buy business class on international flights.
Boom is designing the Overture to be smaller than the Concorde, seating at most 80 passengers rather than the 100 seats on its predecessor. The company says this “right-sizing” will make operations more economical and the flying experience more comfortable.
Getting to destinations faster also offers unique cost advantages for airliners, Scholl explained. He said less air time means companies like American Airlines and United (which have agreements to purchase Overtures) can complete more routes. Additional savings may occur if supersonic travel enables plane crews to more often return home rather than have to be put up in foreign hotels.
Boom has pledged to design the Overture to fly on sustainable aviation fuels, known as SAFs, which according to the U.S. Department of Energy may be blended from renewable feedstocks, food waste, woody biomass and other non-petroleum sources. SAFs currently cost more than petroleum, due in part to their lower production, but as demand for this alternative fuel rises, many expect its cost to come down.
The sound barrier
Despite the advantages Overture will face, modern aviation technology hasn’t yet solved one of the Concorde’s core limitations. Even at 60,000 feet, Concorde was loud, and governments generally banned it from flying supersonic over where people lived. This restricted the destinations Concorde flew to, while adding to fuel costs when cruising over land.
In January, NASA introduced the X-59, an experimental plane that promises to break the sound barrier without producing earth-shaking sonic booms. One NASA administrator described the plane as instead making “a gentle thump.”
Whether the X-59 represents a future for overland supersonic travel remains to be seen, but Boom leaders are watching.
“Boom will review and may leverage research from the X-59 project when it is available,” the company told the N&O in January. However, the company emphasized it believes its business model will be viable with or without changes to overland flight restrictions. Boom says it has identified up to 600 “profitable and mostly transoceanic routes.”
While UNLV’s Bubb is optimistic about Boom’s prospects, Janet Bednarek is skeptical. An aviation historian at the University of Dayton, Bednarek says companies who touted supersonic flight in the past “have often over-promised how easy it would be, how cheap it would be, and how fast they could get from concept to finished product.”
The demonstrator flight Boom completed earlier this year reached 273 mph. The company said it plans to conduct 10 to 20 additional test flights before going supersonic. Depending on factors like temperature and altitude, that begins at around 760 mph.
If and when the Overture is ready, Boom must gain Federal Aviation Administration certification before carrying any passengers. Bednarek called Boom’s mission to achieve this by 2029 “very ambitious.”
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email [email protected]
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