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Boom Supersonic Advances Flight Preparations for XB-1

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Boom Supersonic, the company building the world’s fastest airliner, Overture, today announced it has completed several key milestones for XB-1, Boom’s technology demonstrator aircraft. XB-1 leverages 60 years of progress in airplane technologies like carbon fiber composites, advanced avionics, and digitally-optimized aerodynamics to enable sustainable supersonic travel. (www.breakingtravelnews.com) More...

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alanhewat
Alan Hewat 7
"The world's fastest airliner" was of course Concorde, which was prevented from flying supersonic over land.
mbrews
mbrews 6
Seems that this XB-1 has (3) GE J-85 engines in a tri-jet configuration, but basically resembles a jet trainer aircraft. No resemblance to an air transport grade aircraft.
jimcander
Jim Anderson 2
Thus the X designation and the description in the article it’s a “demonstrator”

aaronatstate
Aaron Hall 2
It's a 1/3 scale demonstrator...
jbbooks1
Lewis Tripp 0
I see four engines in a two-two configuration.
mbrews
mbrews 7
You see four engines on a "conceptual artist rendering" of a proposed " Overture " The news article and my comment, refer to the Boom model XB-1 .
21voyageur
21voyageur 2
Smoke and mirrors. Will never see the light of day for many of the reasons mentioned by others.
bahalana
Keith Brown 2
I don't know that I agree. The whole reason for the project is based on NASA research to reduce sonic booms to acceptable levels so they can fly supersonic over land. Personally, I don't know what the big deal is anyway, I've experienced sonic booms several times in my life and it's nothing compared to a lightning strike outside the window. It's pretty mild at high altitude which is where they would go supersonic anyway. Many folks make the legitimate point that for over 40 years (except for the Concorde) it still takes about the same time to get from A to B...so it's about time to make some progress, dontchathink?
jacqwayne
jacqwayne 1
I agree with your post, but I have a question. I have heard of reports of sonic booms breaking windows. I've never experienced that myself. Last night, between Aug 31st and Sep 1st, we had a thunderstorm that was as loud as I have ever heard in my 80 plus years, but no broken windows. Is there something different about sonic booms? Also, if flying morphed into most aircraft flying above the speed of sound and subsequently were producing frequent sonic booms on a daily basis, I don't think I would like that, any more than I wouldn't want thunderstorms like we had last night, on a daily basis.
bahalana
Keith Brown 1
My understanding is that a sonic boom is a shockwave with a lot of velocity that at thunderclap doesn't have, so yes, at low altitudes, they can break windows and do other damage, but at high altitude, enough of that energy is dissipated by the time it reaches the ground so no ill effects. I don't know how much the NASA research has made it "livable" but if so, it would be a game changer for cross-continental travel. Concorde was never profitable because of the restrictions, BA and Air France only continued to fly them for the prestige, they lost money every flight.
MMFab
Mark Mocho 2
I was under the impression that the project suffered a setback when Rolls Royce backed out as the engine supplier.
mbrews
mbrews 1
Latest news I saw : Boom has established some relationship with Florida Turbine technologies, a division of a larger military aerospace company. Stay tuned for what might come to fruition
MMFab
Mark Mocho 2
Why did Rolls-Royce pull out of Boom?
“Rolls-Royce has determined that the commercial aviation supersonic market is not currently a priority for us,” said Rolls-Royce. Boom said it has become “clear that Rolls-Royce's proposed engine design and legacy business model is not the best option for Overture's future airline operators or passengers”.Sep 9, 2022
crichardfrancis
crichardfrancis 2
This reads like PR fluff. And, by the way, Mach 1.7 does not make it the worlds fastest airliner. That title belongs to Concorde, at Mach 2.0. 100 passengers at Mach 2.0 for 3.5 hours. And that astonishing performance was developed in the 1960's. I was lucky enough to fly it 4 times, and it was truly impressive.
druck13
druck13 2
Exactly. "Leveraging 60 years of progress in airplane technologies"; they've made a smaller, slower imitation of Concorde.
Scumhook
Scumhook 2
hahaha yes well put!!

It seems the aviation industry is taking a leaf out of the entertainment industry playbook
captrags80
Michael Ragsdale 1
Why??
lbflight
Burke Files 1
It is some amazing technology, both assembled and created. If they can keep the funding going, they will do well. The bear will be and has been the engines. They had handshake deals with several and all backed out. I look forward to their progress.
mjfrank11
MJ Frank 1
scam website? Why am I seeing:

www.breakingtravelnews.com
Checking if the site connection is secure
strickerje
strickerje 2
It's legit. The "Checking if the site connection is secure" message is an automated process that checks that an actual browser is making the request and not a bot, in order to prevent DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service, whereby a network of bots bombards a site with connection requests to prevent legitimate ones from getting through).

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