Boom Supersonic's Overture jet, which could cut the London to New York flight time to three and a half hours, is just weeks away from its first engine tests, according to the company's CEO, Blake Scholl.
Engine testing imminent
Speaking on the Captain Steeeve YouTube channel, Scholl said the prototype engine is almost ready for testing, an important marker for getting the jet in the air. He said: "We're going to solve those problems and we'll make it happen. But where we are today, literally on the other side of this building, the first Symphony engine is in final assembly right now."
"We're a few weeks away from that thing running for the first time. And we've got a lot of work to do to turn it from one prototype engine to many that are certified. But it's pretty clear it's going to work," he added.
Supersonic revival plans
Boom Supersonic was founded in 2014 by Blake Scholl, Joe Wilding, and Josh Krall, with the explicit mission of building a modern commercial supersonic jet to spark a "supersonic revival." The Overture is designed to travel at around 1,300 mph over water, more than twice the speed of conventional jetliners.
Several major international carriers, including American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines, have already placed pre-orders or options for the fleet. The company aims to target ticket pricing to align with standard modern business-class fares rather than Concorde's prohibitive pricing.
Targeting 2030 for passengers
Scholl hopes to welcome the first fee-paying customers onboard the Overture as soon as 2030. He said: "We want to do that as humanly or super-humanly possible. Our goal is 2030, four years from now. These things have a way of taking longer than you want them to."
"What I've learned along the way, it matters to focus on how fast you move rather than being predictable. There's a chance it might take longer than we want but we're sprinting at this as fast as we can," he added.
Concorde's legacy
Concorde's first commercial flight was in 1976, but the devastating Air France crash in 2000, killing 113 people, spelled the beginning of the end for the plane. The aircraft were retired by Air France in May 2003 and by British Airways in November of that year. The record for a passenger jet between London and New York was two hours and 52 minutes, set in February 1996.
