EXCITING OVERTURE, Prestissimo, but will it make through the NOISE and past JUSTICE?
The below article about Boom’s Supersonic Overture excites all aviation aficionados. We remember the speed and convenience of the French-English Concorde, but
- the excitement associated with that revolutionary aircraft is diminished by its financial failure, i.e., annual operating bill of £1 billion for British Airways.
- Noise posed a massive policy hurdle then, insurmountable now?
- American Airlines holds 20 of these aircraft by virtue of its investment in BOOM—harkening to a 1934 Antitrust case.
First the good news, Boom founder and CEO Blaske Scholl promises that the aircraft will attain speeds of MACH 1.7 OVER WATER and JUST UNDER MACH 1 OVER LAND!!!
SPEED
Here is an AI generated list of fastest commercial airliners:
- 1938: The Douglas DC-3 was one of the first successful commercial airliners, with a cruising speed of 207 mph (333 km/h) 1.
- 1949: The de Havilland Comet was the world’s first jet airliner, with a top speed of 500 mph (800 km/h) 2.
- 1958: The Boeing 707 was the first commercially successful jet airliner, with a maximum speed of 607 mph (977 km/h) 3.
- 1969: The Concorde was the first supersonic passenger jet, with a record speed of 1,354 MPH (2,179 km/h) .
- 1976: The Tupolev Tu-144 was the first and only Soviet supersonic passenger jet, with a top speed of 1,553 mph (2,500 km/h) .
PEAK SPEED
- 1988: The Boeing 747-400 was the most common variant of the iconic jumbo jet, with a cruising speed of 570 mph (920 km/h) .
- 2007: The Airbus A380 was the world’s largest passenger airliner, with a maximum speed of 634 mph (1,020 km/h) .
- 2011: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was the first airliner to use composite materials for most of its construction, with a top speed of 593 mph (954 km/h) .
- 2014: The Airbus A350 XWB was a long-range twin-engine wide-body jet, with a cruising speed of 561 mph (903 km/h) .
- 2020: The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental was the fastest commercial plane in service today, with a top speed of Mach 0.86 or about 660 mph (1,062 km/h) .
THE OVERTURE holds great promise in speed, as did the Papa Concorde.
NOISE
All statements from the company are up-tempo:
“Overture’s environmental noise will blend in with the existing subsonic aircraft fleet. Overture won’t have afterburners like Concorde and its jet exhaust will be subsonic during take off. This means no loud shocks in its exhaust plume, like you would typically hear and see from supersonic military aircraft…
And its data claims to support this assertion. That’s all well and good, but community sensitivity to noise has risen to the level that community groups do not accept the current noise impact. The response to OVERTURE may fall within psychoacoustic reception range or also deemed to be misophonia. The mere return of the SST may crystalize the Quiet Skies coalition’s attack on all flights. PROBLEM?!?
1934 ANTITRUST CASE-TODAY?
- History: “Boeing developed or purchased airlines to build its own passenger system, United Air Lines. It also expanded its holdings to create the giant United Aircraft and Transportation Company...
- Technological advances, funded in part by military contracts, led Boeing to develop all-metal monoplane designs in the late 1920s and early 1930s…
- …At the same time, Boeing began to assemble an industrial empire. On February 1, 1929, William Boeing and Fred Rentschler, president of Pratt & Whitney engines, incorporated United Aircraft and Transport…United quickly acquired Hamilton and Standard propellers, Chance-Vought, Northrop, Sikorsky … and Stearman…Boeing was forced to dissolve United Aircraft and Transport as a result.
Today’s DOJ’s antitrust posture has been more aggressive than recent Administrations (Google and Amazon). Even with United’s purchase of 10 Overtures, would they repeat the 1934 prohibition because of control of these planes which will command ultra-high fare customers, and which will dominate these thin markets with a few SSTs?
‘Son of Concorde’ supersonic jet set to make first test flight
All being well, the prototype will pave the way for a new supersonic jet that will travel from the UK to the US in just three and a half hours.
by Adam Gray | Published on 5th Sep 2023
Boom Supersonic
A new supersonic jet could be taking to the skies in the not too distant future.
Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 experimental prototype has undergone extensive ground testing over the past few months. Fast approaching the final stages of testing, the prototype’s set to take its first test flight before the end of the year. The testing is helping prepare the aviation company’s Overture aircraft, dubbed the “Son of Concorde,” for its first flight in 2029.
Apparently, Overture will be able to fly passengers from the United Kingdom to the United States in just three and a half hours. The jet, which features four engines and a new fuselage, will be able to fly at supersonic speeds of up to 1,304 miles per hour.
Boom Supersonic
To be precise, the aircraft will cruise at MACH 1.7 OVER WATER and JUST UNDER MACH 1 OVER LAND. The new supersonic jet won’t just fly between the UK and US, though. More than 600 routes have been planned from Overture across the globe.
Last year, American Airlines confirmed its partnership with the company to create aircraft that could travel at “2x the speed of today’s fastest commercial jets”.
>FORT WORTH, Texas, and DENVER, Aug. 16, 2022 — American Airlines and Boom Supersonic today announced the airline’s agreement to purchase up to 20 Overture aircraft, with an option for an additional 40. American has paid a non-refundable deposit on the initial 20 aircraft. Overture is expected to carry passengers at twice the speed of today’s fastest commercial aircraft.<
Boom Supersonic
“Aviation has not seen a giant leap in decades,” Boom founder and CEO Blaske Scholl previously said in a statement. “Overture is revolutionary in its design, and it will fundamentally change how we think about distance,” he added. It goes without saying, test-flying the prototype is an important milestone for the company, which has ambitions of developing both sustainable and supersonic flights.
Boom Supersonic
“I believe in a future where more people go more places,” Scholl recently told Yahoo. “Think about crossing the Atlantic in under four hours, leaving the East Coast in the morning, and making it to a dinner meeting in Europe on the same day,” he added. “Think about being able to do a roundtrip to Asia in 24 hours.”
