It is the dream of all aeronautics enthusiasts: the return of supersonic commercial flights. With the end of the Concorde epic in November 2003, the airline sector turned the page on an important technological advance that allowed distances to be considerably shortened.
Since then, numerous projects have been carried out to relaunch an aircraft that surpasses the sound barrier, that is, 1,234 km/h (the Concorde traveled at 2,179 km/h). And many have failed due to the colossal investments that have to be made and the technical difficulties that have to be overcome, like Aeroion or even Boeing.
However, today an actor seems to stand out from the crowd with a project that is slowly taking shape. This is the American Boom Supersonic.
Over 100 pre-orders claimed for Overture
Based in Denver, Colorado and founded by Blake Scholl, the young company has been developing an aircraft called “Overture” since 2014. It raised $100 million in funding in 2019, received 130 pre-orders from American and Japanese companies, and claims to have recently reached new industrial milestones.
With its delta wing, wasp waist and pointed nose, the future quad-jet has great similarities to the Concorde. But everything stops there. The aircraft is based on completely different technologies, in particular the composite fuselage, which is advertised as much lighter than that of the Concorde, made of aluminum alloy.
It will transport about 70 people for transoceanic connections. With a speed of 1.7 Mach (compared to 2.2 for the Concorde), it will fly twice as fast as current aircraft. The Overture thus points to routes such as New York-Rome in less than 5 hours (instead of 8), San Francisco-Seoul in just over 8 hours (instead of more than 12 hours) or even Zurich-Philadelphia in less than 5 hours. (instead of 9 hours). 600 roads on the planet would be usable, says Boom.
“The most serious project in Jetsons”
“Throughout this year, Boom continued to advance its key programs towards the production of Overture with new global suppliers and significant advances in the design of Symphony, the sustainable propulsion system for Overture,” the manufacturer’s spokesperson explains to BFM Business. .
“They have raised funds, they have a demonstrator and orders from companies. Their schedule to fly commercially in 2029/2030 is not aberrant,” he continues.
The company has increased its contracts with aeronautical equipment manufacturers such as the French company Latecoere, responsible for the complete architecture of Overture’s electrical wiring interconnection system.
“We start from a blank page and will work from the initial phase to the certification and installation of the harnesses (the bundles of electrical cables of approximately one hundred kilometers, ed.),” specifies Thierry Etfymiades, technical director of the band.
There are still numerous technical challenges
Latecoere, like Leonardo, Safran Landing Systems, Collins Aerospace or even StandardAero, have not joined any dangerous projects.
Thierry Etfymiades acknowledges, however, that the technical challenges remain numerous.
“The plane will fly at 18,288 meters (60,000 feet), because the higher you fly, the faster you go, but the thermal consequences are important. This changes a lot of things for us in terms of limitations, particularly with the risk of deformation and discharge, electric arcs, is very different from what we usually do, we cannot rely on what already exists, nor on the “Concorde” that used technologies that are completely obsolete today. “At this altitude, the risks are amplified.”
And this development work must be framed within very restrictive certification standards in terms of security.
An internally developed engine that raises questions
The truth is that, on this purely technical aspect, François Sfarti has some reservations. “Actually, at the moment we don’t see much, the demonstrator is actually a reformatted fighter aircraft and they are going to need a lot, a lot of money to continue and achieve a test flight campaign. A test flight costs $1.” million,” estimates our consultant.
For its part, Boom claims to be making progress on this crucial issue: “we recently carried out the engineering stage for the design of the Symphony engine, paving the way for hardware testing in 2024,” says a spokesperson.
The question of the operating costs of this type of aircraft also arises. The Concorde was never profitable due to the negative relationship between its enormous fuel consumption and the low number of passengers it carried.
“The Overture will consume approximately two to three times more fuel per seat than comparable subsonic trips in premium class,” the spokesperson acknowledges. But it will consume less than the Concorde.
“Technology and materials have advanced significantly since the development of Concorde, so we can build faster and more efficient supersonic aircraft,” the official said.
An airplane optimized for clean fuels, but…
And to counter future criticism about the ecological impact of such an aircraft in terms of CO2 emissions, and as aviation is singled out for its carbon footprint, Boom highlights the SAF card.
“Please note that Overture will fly on zero-carbon sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Overture is designed from the ground up and optimized to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Boom will drive flight test development and certification using SAF “, says the representative of the company, which claims to have “obtained 10 million gallons (38 million liters) of net zero carbon SAF per year from Dimensional Energy and Air Company for the duration of the flight test program of Overture.
However, we know that SAF production is still insufficient today to meet demand and its price is still much higher than that of kerosene. And it is the airlines that will choose or not to fly with all or part of clean fuels.
Who will this plane be for?
Obviously, this device will not be aimed at mass travel but at the Business market with 70 seats on board, so it is a niche market.
“But Boom is aware of the failure of the Concorde, which offered very few lines. They have traced all the transoceanic routes in the world because the key is the offer, a niche offer certainly but which today has enough passengers. These passengers are premium first class customers. type of companies that want to go faster,” estimates Thierry Etfymiades of Latecoere. And, in fact, you only have to look at the success of private jets to be convinced of this.
“We designed Overture to be profitable for airlines at prices similar to first and business class on more than 600 global routes,” confirms the Boom spokesperson.
For expert François Sfarti, “a business plane is easier to fill, but the main obstacle is not being able to fly at supersonic speed over cities due to noise, the famous supersonic boom. This limits flights only to transoceanic ones, for example. which limits the number of routes and therefore the number of aircraft for sale. If Boom can solve this problem, and I believe they are working on it, this will allow them to increase the number of “marketable aircraft”.
The answer, obviously, will come from companies. “The massive increase in traffic since the end of Concorde, technical progress, the fact that there are more and more rich people” are positive elements, considers the expert. “And showing interest in this supersonic aircraft is good for their image.”
“And if it works, aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing could invest,” analyzes the consultant, although it seems unlikely to go further. These manufacturers are focused today on meeting a massive demand for short and medium-haul aircraft and, above all, on delivering on time.
Source: BFM TV
