Experimental XB-1 aircraft goes supersonic for the first time

The experimental XB-1 aircraft, made by US company Boom Supersonic, flew faster than the speed of sound on 28 January. The achievement is the first time any civil aircraft has gone supersonic over the continental US – and another step toward the possible return of supersonic commercial aviation.

“This jet really does have a lot of the enabling technologies that are going to enable us to build a supersonic airliner for the masses,” said Greg Krauland, former chief engineer for Boom Supersonic, during a live stream of the test flight.

At the Mojave Air & Space Port in California, Boom Supersonic’s chief test pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg took the XB-1 on its twelfth successful test flight and its first supersonic one. The sleek white prototype, with a blue-and-yellow tail assembly, broke the sound barrier on the first pass in the test airspace, reaching a speed of about Mach 1.11. Then Brandenburg flew back around for two more supersonic runs before returning to land.

The only aircraft currently able to reach supersonic speeds are military fighter jets and bombers. Although the fabled commercial airliner Concorde made transatlantic flights for several decades starting in the 1970s, it retired in 2003 due to multiple challenges, including high fuel costs and a deadly accident in 2000 that killed all 109 people on board.

The success of the XB-1 could herald a return for supersonic commercial flight. The test flights are meant to inform the design of a planned Overture airliner that Boom Supersonic says would cruise at Mach 1.7 and carry up to 80 passengers. The company plans to start producing these airliners this year and begin carrying passengers on them in 2029 – and airlines like United and American have already placed orders.

Other supersonic aircraft are also in the works, including from multinational company Dawn Aerospace and US space agency NASA. Fresh off the milestone XB-1 flight, Brandenburg teased a future demonstration that also involves NASA – possibly hinting at a future joint flight with both the XB-1 and NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft. The X-59 is designed to minimise the shock wave that normally accompanies supersonic flight in order to create a sonic thump rather than a disruptive sonic boom.

“We’re working with NASA on something that I’m pretty excited about,” said Brandenburg.