Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator plane just went supersonic in the skies over California’s Mojave desert, making it the first civil aircraft to break the sound barrier.
The American startup’s plane notched the historic achievement in its twelfth test flight. It cleared Mach 1 and stayed supersonic for around four minutes, reaching Mach 1.1. Test pilot Tristan Brandenburg broke the sound barrier two more times before receiving the call to bring the XB-1 back to the Mojave Air & Space Port.
The supersonic flight comes eight years after Boom first revealed the XB-1. It’s a small version of the 64-passenger airliner Boom eventually wants to build, which it calls Overture.
Boom CEO Blake Scholl wrote in a post on X over the weekend that “[m]uch work remains to scale up to Overture.” That includes firing up the Overture’s engine for the first time, which Boom hopes to do later this year.
If and when the company can build it, Overture already has customers in waiting: American, and Japan Airlines have all placed orders for the proposed supersonic aircraft.
Brandenburg landed the XB-1 safely just before 12PM ET. Boom has said that a second supersonic test flight could happen in the next week or two.
“[T]his is supersonic flight’s ‘Falcon 1’ moment,” Scholl wrote over the weekend, referring to when SpaceX’s first rocket reached orbit in 2008.
Scholl added that “XB-1’s supersonic flight marks the first time a supersonic jet has come from something other than a nation-state.” The Concorde, which was retired in 2003, was built jointly by the British and French governments.
This story is developing…
