DALLAS (AP) — Aviation startup Boom Aerospace, based in the Denver area, finally has a supplier lined up to make engines for its supersonic plane.
Boom said Tuesday that Florida Turbine Technologies, or FTT, will design the engines and a division of General Electric will manufacture them for its jet, which it says could be making test flights in 2026 and carrying passengers a few years after that. The company says its 88-seat jet, called Overture, will use four engines, fly up to 1.7 times the speed of sound — about 1,300 mph — and use sustainable aviation fuel.
The company says it plans to carry passengers by the end of the decade, but there are plenty of skeptics in aviation circles, much of it because the company's deal to work with Rolls Royce on an engine fell through.
American Airlines and United Airlines have made deposits on future Overtures — although the airlines won't say how much they put down.