‘New Concorde’ breaks sound barrier during test flight, as owner 'plans commercial trips'

28 January 2025, 19:21 | Updated: 28 January 2025, 23:16

A supersonic jet built by US company Boom has broken the sound barrier for the first time since the Concorde during a test flight.

Boom's Supersonic XB-1 demonstrator is the first civil aircraft to break the sound barrier since the Concorde, reaching a speed of Mach 1.1 (around 844 miles per hour) over the Mojave desert in California on Tuesday.

This means the aircraft, flown by Boom’s chief test pilot Tristan 'Geppetto' Brandenburg, flew 10% faster than the speed of sound, reaching the speed only 12 minutes into the test flight at around 35,000 feet altitude.

“It felt like I was climbing up a roller-coaster,” Brandenburg said in a Q&A after the flight. “It was smooth, it was predictable and it felt great.”

The start-up, founded in 2014 by CEO Blake Scholl, is hopeful it will transport passengers on its commercial airliner Overture as early as 2029.

But Jock Lowe, who was the longest-serving Concorde pilot, told LBC News there is probably "still a long way to go" before Boom's jets are commercially viable.

"Good luck to them and I hope they succeed," he said. "But if you think that similar test airplanes flew [decades] before Concorde, they've still got a long way to go.

"So it's whether or not they can raise enough capital and enough finance to move to the next stage, which is developing a larger airplane."

The Denver-based company, backed by a number of US tech investors including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, live streamed the historic moment an independently built jet broke the sound barrier.

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130 orders and pre-orders have already been placed for Boom’s planned commercial plane, from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines.

Speaking before the test flight, Scholl said: “It’s hard to overstate. It’s been 22 years since we’ve had a civil supersonic flight. The industry has gone backwards and today we are back.”

The location of the test flight was also significant, as it was in the same airspace over the Mojave desert where legendary pilot Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in 1947.

Boom’s commercial jet Overture, which they plan to use for commercial flights, is about two-thirds larger than the XB-1. It is designed to carry around 80 passengers, and would cost about $200mn to build.

If it is successfully built and approved for commercial use, the Overture will be able to reach speeds of Mach 1.7, which is double the speed of the current fastest commercial planes from Boeing or Airbus.

However, experts question if the industry needs supersonic travel, as there is no significant demand and a struggle to meet climate obligations and decarbonisation within the industry.

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Price might also be an issue, as Boom expects airlines to turn a profit at about $5,000 (roughly £4,000) a seat.

But Scholl is optimistic, and believes the market for Overture could reach “easily over 1,000 aircraft”.

“If we can solve affordability, sustainability and safety, then everyone wants supersonic . . . This [aircraft] builds on decades of progress since the last time we built a supersonic jet,” he added, noting that both Boeing and Airbus haven’t built a new plane for 20 years.

The Concorde, retired in 2003 because of an infamous crash that killed over 100 people and high running costs, was the only supersonic commercial jet that ever flew, boasting a top speed of Mach 2 (1,354mph) - twice the speed of sound.

Flights from London to New York City lasted between three-and-a-half to four hours. Today's large airliners fly at about 600 mph, and a London to New York flight takes eight hours on average.

The plane was developed by British and French scientists from 1962 and had its first flight in 1969.

Commercial flights began in 1976. Its developers believed they'd receive orders for 350 Concordes, but soaring fuel costs meant just 20 of the planes were completed.