Boom Supersonic Makes Big Announcement

Boom Supersonic has made a significant announcement as preparations to build its full-scale Overture commence.

The announcement involves Boomless Cruise for the company’s eventual supersonic airliner, which will enable supersonic travel over land without an audible sonic boom.

A historic first supersonic flight with the company’s smaller XB-1 demonstrator aircraft occurred on January 28, 2025, after many years of challenges and rigorous testing to lead to this moment.

The demonstrator broke the sound barrier three times without generating a sonic boom that reached the ground. Boom says this showed the possibility of quiet supersonic travel, which would counter some pushback for adopting its upcoming full-scale aircraft known as Overture.

Thanks to well-established physics known as Mach cutoff, Boomless Cruise is based on this idea: when a sonic boom refracts in the atmosphere and doesn’t reach the ground.

Boom says this effect is achieved by breaking the sound barrier at a high enough altitude, and factors such as speed and atmospheric conditions can also contribute to it.

Data from the supersonic test flights show that supersonic flight without the distance of a sonic boom is possible. The company continued to reaffirm this, but this doesn’t mean those aren’t critical of Boom’s groundbreaking announcement and its validity.

Scepitism For Boomless Cruise

Despite Boom Supersonic’s announcement, there has been equal, very public scepticism about the validity of the company’s claims, arguably not for the first time.

People have voiced their concerns about Boom’s intent on forums and LinkedIn. James Cole, the Director of Future Aviation at Mott MacDonald and an experienced professional in future aviation trends shared his thoughts.

Notwithstanding what a “cutoff altitude” and “refracted wave” might be, how are the cute little arrows (which seem to represent noise) curving away AHEAD of the aircraft? If you are flying supersonic, the aircraft is (tautologically) flying faster than its sound. The sound can never get ahead of the aircraft.

James Cole

Furthermore, others agreed but publicly stated that they were not surprised that Boom was releasing this information to the public after years of dishonesty regarding their product.

Equally, because of regulations, there are those concerned about getting laws overturned. However, Blake Scholl, the founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, has continued to defend the product and firmly believes in the investments already made and its direction.

Criticism will always exist for new endeavours such as Boom Supersonic’s; however, scepticism remains at an all-time high, ranging from finances to false claims, funding concerns, and more.

Thus far, the full-scale overture has secured over 100 pre-orders from United Airlines, American Airlines and Japan Airlines. However, their deals are not firm, and getting out of these contracts is undoubtedly possible.