Boom Technology

Boom Supersonic, Inc
Industry Aerospace
Founded 2014
Headquarters Denver, Colorado
Key people
  • Blake Scholl (CEO)
  • Joe Wilding (Chief Engineer)
  • Josh Krall (CTO)
Products Supersonic aircraft production
Website boomsupersonic.com

Boom Technology is a startup company aiming to create a 55-passenger civilian supersonic transport aircraft to fly up to Mach 2.2 (1,262 kn; 1,452 mph; 2,337 km/h). Conceptually it could fly from New York City to London in 3 hours and 24 minutes at a proposed round trip cost of $5,000.[1] The plane could seat 55 passengers in a higher-density configuration.[2]

History

The Denver-based company was founded in 2014.[1] The company participated in a Y Combinator startup incubation program in early 2016, and has been funded by Y Combinator, Sam Altman, Seraph Group, Eight Partners, and others.[3]

Richard Branson confirmed that Virgin Atlantic holds options for 10 aircraft; in addition, Virgin Galactic's subsidiary, The Spaceship Company, will play a role in manufacturing and testing the jet.[4][3] Boom also says they have options for an additional 15 aircraft to an unnamed European carrier; all options are valued at a combined value of $5 billion dollars.[5] The projected actual sales price of the aircraft is $200 million per jet (without options and interior).[6]

The Boom Supersonic jet in a three engine configuration.

In March 2016, the company had concept drawings and wooden mockups of the aircraft.[7] In October 2016, the design was stretched to around 155 ft to seat up to 50 passengers with ten extra seats, its wingspan marginally increased, and a third engine was added to enable ETOPS with up to an 180 minutes diversion time. The XB-1 one-third-scale prototype, powered by three General Electric CJ610 turbojets (a civilian J85), is also anticipated to make its initial subsonic flight in late 2017, with subsequent supersonic flight testing at Edwards AFB.[8]

Its wing configuration is a conventional compound delta for low supersonic drag, it is designed to be like a 75% scale model of Concorde: no low sonic boom unlike the SAI Quiet Supersonic Transport (QSST), or laminar supersonic flow technology from the Aerion AS2. Due to the low wing aspect ratio (around 1.5), drag is high at low speeds and the aircraft requires a high thrust at take-off. Boom wants to use moderate bypass turbofans without afterburners, unlike Concorde's Rolls-Royce Olympus. The only available are jet fighter engines, which have neither the fuel economy nor the reliability required for commercial aviation. No engine manufacturer can develop such an engine based on sales of only 10 options. Boom also needs to address the nose up attitude on landing, the noise of the high jet speed engine, and the tripled fuel consumption per unit distance and per seat of a modern wide-body aircraft.[9]

With a market for 1,000 supersonic airliners by 2035, Boom secured $33 million dollars of funding in April 2017 for $41 million dollars of total financing, enough to build and fly the "Baby Boom" prototype.[10] Engines won't be an exotic new design but a modified version of current turbofans, although they will have higher maintenance costs; airframe maintenance costs should be similar to other carbon fiber airliners.[10] Five hundred daily routes would be viable: at Mach 2.2 over water, New York and London would be 3 hours, and 15 minutes apart, and Miami, and Santiago de Chile would be 3 hours, and 48 minutes apart; with a 4,500 nautical mile worth of range, transpacific flights would require a refueling stop : San Francisco and Tokyo would be 5 hours, and 30 minutes apart, Los Angeles, and Sydney would be 6 hours, and 45 minutes apart.[10]

At the 2017 Paris Air Show, 51 commitments were added for a backlog of 76 with significant deposits as its introduction is scheduled for 2023. For long-range routes like San Francisco-Tokyo and Los Angeles-Sydney, 30 lie-flat first-class seats could be proposed along 15 business-class seats.[11]

Sonic boom

Compared to the Concorde, the sonic boom is reduced by reducing the weight (two persons per row instead of four, carbon instead of aluminum), reducing the wingspan (in order not to focus the boom at a small area on the ground below the aeroplane) and keeping the length and even emphasizing the S-shape of the planform. One of the engine is moved into the fuselage so that the wing can block its intake spill-over boom from reaching the ground. The friction drag adds up over the large surface, but using the computer to optimize any detail keeps the range to still fly trans atlantic. A country which accepts gun shot noise could probably also accept auctioned emission certificate for sonic booms of a small number (compared to military) of planes. A supersonic cruising plane just is fuel hungry at low speeds, but for supersonic cruise it could theoretically use three engines of the Concorde (sans after burner). Thus it is of paramount importance to let it fly supersonic most of the time.

Aircraft models

XB-1 Baby Boom

A model of the XB-1 a demonstrator to the Boom Supersonic jet.

The XB-1 "Baby Boom" supersonic demonstrator was unveiled in Denver on November 15, 2016. It is 68 feet (21 m) long, has a 17 feet (5.2 m) wingspan and a 13,500 lb (6,100 kg) maximum take-off weight. Powered by three 3,500 lbf (16 kN), non-afterburning General Electric J85-21 engines with variable geometry inlets and exhaust, the prototype should be able to sustain Mach 2.2 with more than a 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km) range. Constructed of lightweight composites, it has a two-crew cockpit, chined forebody and swept trailing edges.[2] Its preliminary design review was completed by June 2017 for a late 2018 flight test.[12]

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

Related lists

References

  1. 1 2 Vance, Ashlee (21 March 2016). "This Aerospace Company Wants to Bring Supersonic Civilian Travel Back". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 Guy Norris (November 15, 2016). "‘Baby Boom’ Supersonic Demonstrator Unveiled". Aviation Week.
  3. 1 2 Kokalitcheva, Kia (23 March 2016). "This Startup Is Developing Supersonic Planes for Virgin Group". Fortune. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Sir Richard Branson confirms Virgin has options to buy 10 supersonic Boom jets". Mail Online. 24 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin". TechCrunch. AOL. 23 March 2016.
  6. ↑ http://boomsupersonic.com/faq/#q18
  7. ↑ Szondy, David (March 22, 2016). "Can Boom bring back supersonic flight without the astronomical price tag?". Gizmodo. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Potential Mach 2.2 Airliner Market Pegged At $260 Billion". Aviation Week. October 12, 2016.
  9. ↑ Bjorn Fehrm (November 17, 2016). "Will Boom succeed where Concorde failed?". Leeham News.
  10. 1 2 3 Aaron Karp (May 3, 2017). "Boom CEO sees market for 1,000 supersonic passenger jets by 2035". Air Transport World. Aviation Week.
  11. ↑ Stephen Trimble (June 20, 2017). "Boom Aerospace unveils design for XB-1 demonstrator". Flightglobal.
  12. ↑ Guy Norris (Jun 15, 2017). "‘Baby Boom’ Demonstrator Passes Design Review"Paid subscription required. Aviation Daily. Aviation Week Network.
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