DENVER — A Colorado-based aerospace company is flying high after a history-making supersonic flight over the Mojave Desert Tuesday.
Boom Supersonic, which is headquartered in Centennial, said its XB-1 demonstrator aircraft broke the sound barrier at the Mojave Air & Space Port in California, a first for an independently developed civil aircraft made in America.
Tuesday’s successful test flight is part of a larger and more ambitious program by the Colorado company, the production of a supersonic airliner, Overture. Boom said that the aircraft would be capable of flying at Mach 1.7, which is twice the speed of today’s fastest airliners.
Watch the test flight in the video player below:
The XB-1 was flown by Boom Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg. The company said in a release that the aircraft entered the supersonic corridor and reached an altitude of 35,290 feet before accelerating to Mach 1.122.
“XB-1’s supersonic flight demonstrates that the technology for passenger supersonic flight has arrived,” Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl said in the release.
Boom said the XB-1 incorporates many of the key features found on Overture, such as carbon fiber composites, digital stability augmentation, and an augmented reality vision system for landing visibility.
The company said the new aircraft will cut travel times in half and operate on up to 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Overture can hold 65 to 88 people and reach a cruising altitude of 60,000 feet.
United Airlines was the first U.S. airline to sign a commercial agreement with the company, but the company has since signed orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines.
In 2024, the company completed construction on a factory in Greensboro, North Carolina, which will scale to produce 66 Overture aircraft per year. It's slated to roll out this year, fly in 2026, and is expected to carry passengers by 2029.
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