The sonic boom is back for passenger aviation … maybe

BRUSSELS — Two decades after the retirement of the Concorde, supersonic flight is preparing for a comeback with the same argument the iconic jet used — it could halve travel times on transatlantic trips.

Boom Supersonic, an American aerospace company pumping effort and money into the supersonic renaissance, is confident that its Overture airliner will be in commercial service within five years.

“Everyone’s going to need this airplane, it’s only a matter of time,” Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl told POLITICO.

But when the Anglo-French Concorde and its short-lived Soviet competitor, the Tupolev Tu-144, were being planned, passengers cared about speed and governments wanted to wave the flag of national tech prowess.

Today there are greener concerns. NASA scientists say supersonic jets typically burn three to seven times more fuel per passenger mile than subsonic jets.

That sets up a potential clash with climate activists demanding that aviation reduce its carbon footprint. Some, like Greta Thunberg, even advocate “flight shaming” to discourage air travel.

“The world is much more aware of it now than it was 20 years ago. And so it’s obvious that this is a priority,” Scholl said, arguing that green fuels and faster travel would make his aircraft sustainable.

But the economics also look challenging. Smaller airframes limit the capacity of the Overture to 64 to 80 seats, which the company estimates will sell for $5,000 for a round-trip ticket across the Atlantic.

Still, Scholl is confident that, given the choice, travelers — just like their grandparents — will opt for speed. He also aims to steadily cut the cost of flights. “Our ultimate goal is to make supersonic flight available to all passengers on all routes.”

“If you can get from London to New York in three-and-a-half hours on United and it takes BA nine hours, everyone’s flying BA is gonna switch to United,” he said in an interview at the Boom Chalet at the Farnborough International Airshow. (To be precise, a British Airways flight from London to New York takes about eight hours.)

The United vs. British Airways comparison doesn’t come out of nowhere. The British carrier and Air France were the only two airlines to fly the Concorde from 1976 until 2003, when it was forced to retire following a crash in 2000 that killed all 113 people onboard and speeded up the aircraft’s phaseout.

Boom has persuaded some airlines that supersonic flights make sense. It has a book of 130 orders and preorders from carriers including United, American Airlines and Japan Airlines.

Some, like Greta Thunberg, advocate “flight shaming” to discourage air travel. | Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images

Need for speed

Boom tested its XB-1 delta-shaped demonstrator in California earlier this year; the plane didn’t break the sound barrier, but did test systems that will eventually be part of the much larger Overture aircraft. The United States’ Federal Aviation Administration also gave permission for the test airplane to be flown at speeds above Mach 1.

Boom is pretty much the only builder seeing a market for large supersonic passenger planes.

Boeing and Airbus helped other manufacturers develop superfast business jets and even hoped to launch their own. But in recent years, those ambitions disappeared from the radar of the two undisputed leaders in the aircraft industry.

That’s why Boom believes its aircraft will be a game changer.

“It’s now been 20 years since Boeing or Airbus did a new product,” Scholl said, recalling that the Boeing 787 was launched at the same time that Airbus introduced the long-range A350. “And since then, there’s been only tweaks [to those models],” he added.

Mark Bentall, head of research and technology at Airbus, responded that the new A350s are made of carbon fiber, which makes them significantly different from the base model. The recently certified A321XLR also represents a major innovation for the Toulouse-based company, as the new narrow-body plane has extra fuel capacity making it suitable for long-haul flights.

“The key focus for us is not to go faster. Faster takes more energy, always will do. And it’s not contributing to the sustainability drive,” Bentall said.

Despite worries about emissions and fuel consumption, Boom promises to reduce the environmental impact of Overture — which, according to Scholl, burns twice as much fuel as a comparable nonsupersonic flight — by using only sustainable aviation fuel instead of kerosene.

Another issue is the U.S. ban on all overland commercial supersonic flights to avoid noise pollution, which will force Boom to fly supersonic only over seas, a restriction the Concorde also faced. ICAO, the United Nations’ aviation agency, is working on new standards for supersonic flights.

“We know how to do supersonic, if we need to,” Bentall added, mentioning Airbus-made military jets. “But for sustainability reasons you wouldn’t go there until people need it,” he said, noting that what long-haul travelers want today is “to be productive while flying, remain connected and enjoy the trip.”

“Is a couple more hours going to be really what you’re going to need?” Bentall asked.

According to Scholl, the answer is yes.

The United Nations’ aviation agency is working on new standards for supersonic flights. | Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

“My kids had a grandfather who lived in Hong Kong. Sadly, he passed during Covid, and they got to meet him maybe three or four times in their entire life,” he said. “The reason is there’s 18 hours from our home in Denver to Hong Kong. It’s just too long, especially for the very young and very old.”

Supersonic passenger aircraft also have a dodgy safety reputation. The Tu-144 crashed at the 1973 Paris Air Show and only flew passengers for seven months. The Concorde’s fiery crash at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2000 was the final blow for the ailing airplane.

Scholl called safety worries “quite unfair to Concorde. They had one crash in 27 years of flying with a 1960s design. And if you look at 1960s technology that’s actually a really good safety record.”

Since the Overture is a completely new aircraft incorporating the latest safety equipment, Scholl is convinced that its new systems “would make it impossible to have the kind of accident the Concorde had.”