The CEO of Boom Supersonic has an announcement to shout from the rooftops: the company has ‘cracked’ supersonic flight with ‘no audible sonic boom’.
The journeys will be up to 50 percent faster.
It was quietly demonstrated on XB-1’s first supersonic flight three times (pun intended).
Its name? ‘Boomless Cruise’.
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The announcement was made by CEO, Blake Scholl, who explained how it works.
“It’s actually well-known physics called Mach cutoff,” he said.
These physics were just theories before XB-1 proved it with ‘airliner-ready technology’.
Boom! We cracked it! Today we are introducing Boomless Cruise—supersonic flights up to 50% faster with no audible sonic boom.
We quietly (har har) demo’d this on XB-1’s first supersonic flight—three times actually. pic.twitter.com/oe0VHJqNit
— Blake Scholl (@bscholl) February 10, 2025
“When an aircraft breaks the sound barrier at a sufficiently high altitude, the boom refracts in the atmosphere and curls upward without reaching the ground.
“It makes a U-turn before anyone can hear it.”
The upward trajectory of the boom is all down to cold temperatures at altitude.
The sonic boom never reaches the ground
This atmospheric U-turn requires tech that wasn’t available in the era of supersonic Concorde.
It requires engines powerful enough to break the sound barrier at such a high altitude that the boom can make a U-turn.
Tech now allows us to predict boom propagation precisely.
Boomless Cruise relies on the Symphony engines of the Overture airliner and its ‘boomless’ mode that’s designed ‘with enhanced transonic performance’
The mode automatically selects the fastest quiet speed as it advises pilots on the fastest, most efficient altitude based on weather forecasts.
It will be able to hit a top speed of Mach 1.3 – but will usually sit between Mach 1.1 and Mach 1.2.
It’s not the same tech used by NASA and its ‘quiet’ X-59 – as the sonic boom will be completely absent.
As well as the 600+ routes that will benefit from Overture’s existing Mach 0.94/Mach 1.7 hybrid speed, Boomless Cruise is set to add many other practical routes.
These will fly from coast to coast in the US up to 90 minutes faster when permitted by American regulators.
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