“Our ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone” – so says Blake Scholl, founder and chief executive of Boom Supersonic.
His company, based in Denver, is at the forefront of the race to find a successor to Concorde. The chosen name: Overture.
“Flights onboard Overture will cut travel times in half, ushering in the next era of faster travel,” the firm says. Boom Supersonic has attracted 130 orders, “pre-orders” and options from American Airlines, United and Japan Airlines.
Earlier this year the Colorado company’s supersonic test bed, known as XB1, became the first independently-funded jet to break the sound barrier.
Boom Supersonic says its production plane, known as Overture, will fly at 60,000 feet, the same as Concorde. The speed, Mach 1.7, is one-sixth slower – but still twice as fast as subsonic aircraft. It claims London-New York will take three hours 45 minutes, comparable with Concorde’s historic schedule.
Nostalgia for the supersonic flight has been particularly notable this week – 25 years after the Concorde Air France crash.
But had Concorde not been taken out of service on commercial grounds, it would surely by now have been grounded because of the environmental damage. On a London-New York trip, it would deafen bystanders at either end of the route and burn through 100 tons of aviation fuel; a Boeing 787 carries three times as many passengers for half as much fuel.
Boom Supersonic can fly on 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), though critics question the claimed benefits of this scarce substance.
A clue to a noisier environmental problem lies in the name: Boom. Concorde was unable to fly faster than the speed of sound overland because of the shockwave that supersonic aircraft create – which is experienced as a thunder-like boom by a person who is on the ground.
Boom Supersonic believes it has come up with a solution: reducing the aircraft’s speed while flying over land to about Mach 1.2. “By flying at a sufficiently high altitude at an appropriate speed for current atmospheric conditions, Overture’s sonic boom never reaches the ground,” the firm says.
“When in Boomless Cruise, speeds are 40-50 per cent faster than conventional airliners. This means a flight from New York to Los Angeles can be up to 90 minutes shorter.
“At top speeds of Mach 1.7, flight times are twice as fast and sonic booms are only created over water.”
The range will be 4,890 miles – only about one-sixth more than Concorde’s maximum, but opening up many more potential routes such as London to Miami, Los Angeles to Lima and Brisbane to Tokyo. Boom Supersonic says potentially there are more than 600 “profitable routes” worldwide.
While Concorde fares were typically about 20 per cent higher than subsonic first class, Boom Supersonic says it expects airlines operating Overture will profitable with fares at business to first class levels.
One of Boom’s advisory council is Captain Mike Bannister, former Concorde chief pilot. He says: “I’ve been waiting over 20 years for an environmentally friendly successor to Concorde and XB-1’s supersonic flight is a major landmark towards my dreams being realised.
“When I last flew Concorde in 2003 I knew that this day would come.”
But senior aviation executive Jonathan Hinkles believes the ways of the travel world have changed dramatically over the past 22 years – and that Zoom could pose problems for Boom.
He told The Independent’s daily travel podcast: “If you look at what Concorde did, it was a way of being able to leave London at 7pm, arrive in New York at 5.50pm, so you’d be basically travelling through time to arrive in New York before the flight had left London in local time.
“But of course, today we’ve got Zoom, we’ve got Teams. A lot of business meetings that were the bedrock of why people flew on Concorde don’t actually require people to fly anymore.
“The market that supported Concorde through its life has moved on fundamentally. I just can’t see that there’s an economic case for a successor. For the foreseeable future we’re going to be very much confined to flying around at 550mph.”
Lyn Hughes, founding editor of Wanderlust magazine, concurs: “I think the public are less concerned now with the speed of the flights than they are with other factors: safety, convenience, reliability, value for money and comfort.
“The real revolution now would be a better experience at the airport pre and post the flight, and a comfortable experience on it – and, of course, for a more sustainable, carbon-free flight.”
But Blake Scholl, CEO of Boom Supersonic, is convinced speed will prevail: “We believe in a world where more people can go to more places more often.
“Sustainable supersonic travel unlocks new possibilities for business relationships, prospects for vacation and opportunities for human connection.”
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