A livestream documented the historic moment for the first civil supersonic jet built in America, ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports
A civil supersonic jet built in America has broken the sound barrier for the first time during a test flight in California on Monday.
Boom’s Supersonic XB-1 demonstrator is the first civil aircraft to break the sound barrier since the Concorde.
The flights success paves the way for the company’s hope that supersonic planes will replace conventional airliners in our lifetime.
The aircraft, flown by Boom’s chief test pilot Tristan ‘Geppetto’ Brandenburg, accelerated to Mach 1.1 (around 844 miles per hour) — 10% faster than the speed of sound — about 12 minutes into the test flight at about 35,000 feet.
The fastest speed the XB-1 had reached prior to the January 28 flight was Mach 0.95 – just below the supersonic threshold of Mach 1 – which it hit during its last test flight earlier in January.
Boom’s Supersonic XB-1 accelerated to Mach 1.1 – 10% faster than the speed of sound
A livestream documented the historic moment for the first civil supersonic jet built in America and the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet.
The XB-1, which has now completed 12 successful test flights since it first took to the air in March 2024, is the precursor to the development of Boom’s supersonic commercial airliner, Overture.
The plane already has 130 orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines.
When the XB-1 took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port on its latest flight it was in the same historic airspace where legendary pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in 1947.
It’s now almost 55 years since the 002 prototype for Concorde first flew at Mach 1 on March 25, 1970, and more than 21 years since commercial supersonic travel ended with the Anglo-French airliner’s final flight in November 2003.
Last year, Boom Supersonic’s CEO Blake Scholl said he believes supersonic jets are the future.
“I very much believe in the return of supersonic air travel, and ultimately to bring it to every passenger on every route. And that’s not something that takes place overnight,” he told ITV News’ US partner CNN.
Boom’s plan is that Overture will be in operation before the end of the decade, carrying 64 to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7, about twice the speed of today’s subsonic airliners.
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