Colorado-based Boom plans to introduce a one-third demonstration model on Wednesday, the XB-1, which will allow the company to begin flight testing in 2021 to glean data on the jet’s wings and fuselage. Boom plans to use three GE J85 engines to power the XB-1 and is evaluating engine designs with Rolls-Royce for the production aircraft, which Boom calls Overture.
Vice argues that Aerion has an advantage over supersonic competitors when it comes to engine development, pointing to its partnership with GE and its plan to build the first commercial supersonic power plant in more than five decades. The design is exclusive for Aerion, said Vice, who declined to disclose how much the engine development will cost or how it’s being financed.
“Somebody else wanting to build a supersonic business jet—they’re going to have to go find a different engine,’’ Vice said. Aerion “for sure” will be the first new supersonic commercial aircraft to market, he predicted. “We’ll get there years ahead of anybody else.”
Aerion said it scoured the world for an engine, including Russian designs that would meet noise restrictions, fuel-burn requirements and reliability over thousands of hours of high-speed flying. No existing engines fit the bill, though. Instead, the company turned to GE to build an engine with 20,000 pounds of thrust, special acoustic linings to reduce take-off noise and dual turbo-fans that don’t require fuel-guzzling afterburners.
GE’s Affinity engine will also be the first designed to run on traditional kerosene and synthetic fuel made in part by capturing carbon dioxide from the air. GE spokesman Nick Hurm confirmed the company’s “unique commercial agreement with Aerion” to build the engine, but declined to disclose financial terms.
Cruising at Mach 1.4, the AS2 would allow for a New York-London flight in four hours or London-Chicago in five hours, each two hours faster than conventional jet flights. The company said it has a $3.5 billion order backlog.
As if making supersonic work again wasn’t hard enough, some of these companies are also working toward what they say will be an environmentally responsible means of travel, without the extreme noise or emissions that accompanied the former Concorde.
Unlike that aircraft’s sonic boom, Aerion contends its “boomless cruise” technology will make the boom refract off a denser, lower layer of air, never reaching the ground. Aerion and Boom also plan to use new synthetic fuels to reduce carbon output.
At some point in the future, as supersonic develops into a viable mode for civil aviation, well-heeled travelers keen to save even more time may be able to turn to hypersonic flights—where cruise velocities can top Mach 5. Recently, hypersonic flight has been in the news as Russia, China and the U.S. invest enormous research and funds into new, nuclear-capable missiles and uncrewed drones. (Orbital space vehicles routinely re-enter the earth’s atmosphere at Mach 25, or 19,000 mph; meanwhile, several military fighter jets can top Mach 2, or 1,500 mph.)
“Supersonic business jets remain an intriguing idea. Supersonic airliners remain unlikely,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group. “Hypersonic travel remains a very remote prospect. If anyone can build a hypersonic weapon that functions (other than a rocket), then a few decades later we might see this technology commercialized.”