There has been a lot of talk of supersonic airplanes of late, with Aerion developing a Mach 1.5 bizjet and NASA working on new technologies to make supersonic flight quieter. Now a new supersonic commercial passenger jet named Boom is emerging. The Denver-based team is targeting a top speed of Mach 2.2, Mach 0.2 faster than the Concorde, at a passenger price point similar to current business class airline tickets.
The supersonic airplane is in the early stages of development, with a targeted first flight at the end of next year. Boom says the initial flight testing is scheduled to take place at the Centennial Airport (KAPA) while supersonic testing will be conducted at the Edwards Air Force Base in California.
The team is led by Blake Scholl, a tech whiz who developed marketing automation for Amazon and started Kima Labs, a mobile technology company that was bought by Groupon. A private pilot, Scholl founded Boom along with software engineer and entrepreneur Josh Krall and Joe Wilding, who was the chief engineer of the Adam A700 jet and has been involved in the development of several other airplanes.
The three co-founders have amassed a team of professionals with previous work experience at companies such as Pratt & Whitney, Gulfstream, Boeing, NASA, Scaled Composites and Icon.
According to Fortune, Virgin is also involved in the project, having signed up for options for 10 Boom aircraft for Virgin Atlantic and offering help with the development and testing through Virgin Galactic. Fortune also reported that another unnamed airline has signed a letter of intent for 15 aircraft, bringing the total backlog to a booming $5 billion.
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