SUPERSONIC FLIGHT

IT’S 20 YEARS SINCE THE PUBLIC COULD BUY A TICKET TO FLY ON A PLANE CAPABLE OF BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER. BUT THERE’S A BAND OF ENGINEERS AND PILOTS WHO THINK COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PASSENGERS ARE ONCE AGAIN FEELING THE NEED… THE NEED FOR SUPERSONIC SPEED

by STEPHEN DOBIE

The XB-1, due for its first test flight later this year, is blazing a trail for the next-generation of supersonic passenger aircraft

BOOM SUPERSONIC

Novemberwill mark the 20th anniversary of Concorde’s retirement. And with it, a lengthy pause on regular, paying airline passengers (albeit those with healthy bank accounts) travelling faster than the speed of sound – 343 metres per second, or 761mph (1,224km/h).

Many still mourn the distinctive, dartshaped aircraft’s loss, deeming its costly tickets, urgent fuel use and thunderous sonic booms when it breached the sound barrier as acceptable prices to pay for being propelled across the Atlantic at Mach 2 (over 1,500mph or 2,400km/h).

Supersonic travel looks to be on its way back, though, and in a cheaper, cleaner and quieter form. “Concorde was a technical marvel and well ahead of its time,” says Ben Murphy, vice president of Sustainability at Boom. “But it was a nationalistic project that hadn’t been built around a viable economical model.”

Boom is an American company aiming to fly passengers supersonically by the end of the decade on its new Overture aircraft.

“We can build on Concorde’s legacy with nearly 60 years of advancement in aerodynamics, materials and propulsion systems,” Murphy says, “with the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) enabling the return of supersonic travel in an economical and environmentally sustainable manner.”