Boom Times and Grand Overtures

Boom Technology, Inc. is a relatively new and unabashedly ambitious player in the aerospace arena. Founded in 2014 and backed to the tune of $151-million by private investors and entities such as Y-Combinator, Seraph Group, Eight Partners, and Japan Airlines, the company is about the bold endeavor of designing and bringing to market a 65-88 passenger airliner capable of crossing 4,250-nautical-miles at a belief-beggaring Mach 1.7.

The aircraft—dubbed Overture—is designed to operate at more than twice the speed of today’s airliners, and sets out to greatly increase the appeal of airline travel by dramatically reducing its duration. What’s more, Overture intends to accomplish its feats of speed and endurance cleanly—as the aircraft’s four engines operate on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Overture’s design derives of 26-million core-hours of simulated software models, five wind-tunnel tests, and the careful evaluation of 51 full design iterations. In its current, near-final incarnation, the aircraft sports bleeding-edge innovations in aerodynamics, noise reduction, and overall performance.

Each of Overture’s four engines is fed by a highly-efficient, streamline-traced, axi-symmetric inlet. Subject inlets—by providing a high-degree of intake pressure consistency—allow the engines to operate on subsonic airflow at supersonic speeds. The inlet design is predicated upon proven supersonic technology that affords easy maintenance and precludes new, costly, small-scale manufacturing processes. The use of four engines keeps the aircraft’s weight and skin-temperature balanced. Furthermore, utilizing four engines—rather than two or three—reduces the per-engine thrust requirement, thereby keeping the airplane sufficiently quiet to meet or exceed extant noise abatement criteria for subsonic aircraft operating over land and at or near airports.

Overture wing derives of the traditional delta-wing found on most supersonic aircraft, but features a unique, gull-contour that drastically improves low-speed flight-characteristics which—as the world’s surviving F-102 and F-106 pilots will attest—are the historical Achilles-heel of high-speed, delta-wing aircraft. Overture’s contoured wing profile reduces sonic shockwave intensity and creates lift-inducing vortices along the entire wing planform.

If Overture delivers the numbers Boom has projected, the airplane will prove a highly-profitable addition to the fleets of global commercial airlines, which will find themselves suddenly and giddily able to significantly increase the number of flight operations their aircrews perform in a single span of duty-hours

Overture is slated to go into production in 2024.

FMI: www.boomsupersonic.com