Boom Supersonic: Pioneering the Future of High-Speed Aviation
Explore how Boom Supersonic, led by founder Blake Scholl, is revolutionizing air travel with the Overture aircraft. It promises Mach 1.7 speeds and sustainable innovation.
The roar of the engines fades into a smooth hum as the aircraft surges down the runway. Passengers grip their armrests—not out of fear, but in anticipation of what’s to come. In an instant, the plane lifts off, climbing steeply into a sky that soon blurs into streaks of blue and white. As it pierces the sound barrier, there’s no jarring boom, just a gentle nudge against the seatback. Outside, the altimeter spins past 60,000 feet, revealing the curvature of the Earth below—a sight reserved for astronauts and dreamers. The Atlantic Ocean stretches endlessly beneath, but it won’t be long before land reappears. In just 3.5 hours, these travelers will step off in London, halving a conventional flight's time. This isn’t a relic of the past or a sci-fi fantasy; it’s the promise of Boom Supersonic, a company daring to resurrect the golden age of supersonic travel and redefine how we traverse the globe.
The Echoes of Concorde and a New Dawn
The Concorde once owned the skies. From 1976 to 2003, it whisked passengers across oceans at twice the speed of sound, turning a transatlantic slog into a three-hour jaunt. But its thunderous sonic booms, insatiable fuel appetite, and sky-high operating costs grounded it, leaving supersonic travel as a nostalgic footnote—until Boom Supersonic emerged. Founded in 2014 in a Denver basement, Boom isn’t merely dusting off old blueprints; it’s rewriting the rules of high-speed flight with its flagship aircraft, the Overture.
Picture this: a sleek, needle-nosed jet cruising at Mach 1.7—over 1,300 miles per hour—carrying 64 to 80 passengers across 4,250 nautical miles. New York to London in 3.5 hours. San Francisco to Tokyo in under six. It’s not just about speed; it’s about accessibility and sustainability, twin pillars that set Boom apart from its predecessors. The company aims to make supersonic travel mainstream again, leveraging cutting-edge technology and a bold vision to shrink the world for business tycoons and weekend wanderers alike.
Engineering the Future
Boom’s ambition hinges on innovation that would make even the Concorde’s engineers marvel. The Overture’s delta wing design slices through the air, optimized for both subsonic efficiency and supersonic grace. Its fuselage, crafted from carbon fiber composites, sheds weight while boosting strength—essential for withstanding the stresses of high-speed flight. A “quiet spike” adorns its nose, a NASA-inspired trick to soften the sonic boom that once rattled windows and regulators alike.
The Symphony engine, a collaboration with Rolls-Royce, is the core of this machine. Unlike the Concorde’s afterburner-dependent Olympus engines, which guzzled fuel like a rock star trashing a hotel bar, Symphony is a medium-bypass turbofan that efficiently delivers 35,000 pounds of thrust. No afterburners are needed—just pure, streamlined power that checks noise and emissions. It’s a leap forward that promises to make supersonic flight less of an environmental pariah.
Then there’s the Mach cutoff technology, Boom’s ace in the hole. Boom aims to muffle the sonic boom into a whisper by sculpting the aircraft's shape and fine-tuning its speed. Tests with the XB-1 demonstrator—a one-third-scale prototype—proved the concept in 2021, hitting Mach 1.122 without rattling the ground below. If this scales to Overture, it could unlock overland routes, a holy grail the Concorde never grasped.
The market is hungry for it. Industry forecasts peg demand at 1,000 supersonic airliners by 2035, spanning 500 profitable routes. A Boom survey revealed that 87% of travelers would switch airlines for a supersonic option, especially time-crunched executives who see hours as currency. United Airlines and American Airlines have already signed on, placing orders that signal confidence in Boom’s vision.
The Regulatory and Green Gauntlet
Yet, the skies aren’t wide open. In the U.S., a decades-old ban forbids civil aircraft from breaking Mach 1 over land, a legacy of Concorde’s disruptive booms. This confines supersonic dreams to oceans, slashing their market reach. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is stirring, though. New rules proposed in 2020 could ease testing and certification, and noise standards might finally evolve to match modern tech. If Boom’s quiet tech holds up, it could rewrite the rulebook.
Then there’s the planet. Supersonic jets could spew two to three times more CO2 per seat-kilometer than today’s widebodies, and high-altitude emissions amplify climate concerns. Boom’s counterpunch? A pledge to run Overture on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), slashing lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 80%. Deals are inked for millions of gallons of SAF, but supply lags—less than 1% of jet fuel today is sustainable. Boom’s fate is tied to an industry-wide push to scale this green elixir.
The Dreamer at the Controls
Behind Boom’s audacity stands Blake Scholl, a man who traded Silicon Valley’s cushy confines for aviation’s unforgiving frontier. Scholl’s resume reads like a tech founder’s playbook: a computer science degree from Carnegie Mellon, a stint at Amazon taming ad algorithms, and a mobile commerce startup, Kima Labs, sold to Groupon in 2012. He could’ve coasted on that success, but a restless curiosity tugged him skyward.
The Concorde became his muse—not its flaws, but its promise. As a kid, he’d built model planes, dreaming of outrunning sound. Now, he’d chase that dream for real.
In 2014, Scholl launched Boom Supersonic with little more than savings, a few believers, and a basement office. “We started with a crazy idea,” he recalls, “and a belief that modern tech could fix what the Concorde couldn’t.” Today, Boom boasts over $600 million in funding and a roster of aerospace heavyweights from NASA, Boeing, and SpaceX. Partnerships with United, American, and Japan Airlines underscore the faith he’s inspired.
Scholl’s no starry-eyed idealist, though. He’s a pragmatist cloaked in a visionary’s cape, breaking impossible goals into bite-sized wins. At Boom’s hangar in Centennial, Colorado, that ethos hums: engineers tinker with XB-1, a culture of rigor and creativity meshing like gears in a well-oiled machine.
What drives him? It’s more than speed. “This is about connecting people,” Scholl says. “Imagine living in Sydney and working in LA, or visiting family across the globe without losing a day. Speed changes everything.” There’s a flicker of Elon Musk in him—bold, risk-hungry—but tempered by a methodical streak that knows aviation brooks no shortcuts.
Leadership comes naturally to Scholl. He’s the pied piper of Boom’s 150-strong team, rallying them with a mix of inspiration and exacting standards. Colleagues describe him as relentless yet approachable, a guy who’ll brainstorm over beers but demand perfection by morning.
Horizons Ahead
Boom’s runway stretches long and perilous. Development costs soar into the billions, and certification looms like a gauntlet—years of testing are required to demonstrate that Overture is safe, quiet, and environmentally friendly enough for the FAA’s approval. Ticket prices need to hit a sweet spot: premium at first, perhaps $5,000 for a round-trip from New York to London, but should be scalable as production increases. The supply of SAF must also grow, or Boom’s eco-commitment falters.
Yet the prize dazzles. Projections hint at 130-240 supersonic jets by 2035, knitting cities closer and juicing economies. Tourism could boom—Paris for dinner, anyone?—and business deals might seal faster when continents shrink. Spin-offs beckon, too: Symphony’s efficiency could trickle into subsonic jets, and carbon composites might lighten tomorrow’s fleets.
Boom’s playbook is shrewd: cozy up to regulators, woo airlines, and educate the public. Community demos of XB-1’s hushed booms aim to sway skeptics. If it works, Scholl’s vision takes flight—a world where distance bends to human will.
The Sky’s New Roar
Boom Supersonic isn’t just chasing Mach 1.7 but a seismic shift. With Overture, it promises to resurrect supersonic travel’s glory, scrubbed of Concorde’s sins. The tech is dazzling, the hurdles daunting, but at its heart is Blake Scholl—a man who saw a stagnant sky and dared to stir it. “We’re not just about speed,” he says, eyes fixed on a horizon only he can fully see. “We’re about a future where the world feels smaller, more connected than ever.”
If Boom clears the gauntlet, the skies will thunder again—not with booms, but with possibility. A new era of flight beckons, and Scholl’s ready to pilot us there, one Mach at a time.
