Boom Supersonic's Overture Engine Weeks Away From First Test, CEO Says
Why It MattersA successful engine run would move supersonic passenger flight closer to commercial reality, testing whether Overture can meet its 2030 target with major airline pre-orders already in place.
Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl said the company's Symphony engine prototype is "weeks away" from its first run, a milestone toward flying the Overture supersonic passenger jet. Speaking on the Captain Steeeve YouTube channel, Scholl said the engine is in final assembly, adding that significant work remains to go from a single prototype to multiple certified engines.
The Overture is designed to cruise at roughly 1,300 mph over water, more than twice the speed of conventional jetliners, and is projected to cut London-to-New York flight time from about eight hours to three and a half hours. British Airways flights between London Heathrow and JFK currently average around eight hours, while the fastest recorded passenger jet crossing between the two cities was two hours and 52 minutes, set by Concorde in February 1996.
Scholl said he hopes to carry the first fee-paying passengers aboard the Overture by 2030, though he acknowledged the timeline could slip, and said the company aims to price tickets in line with modern business-class fares rather than Concorde-era premium pricing. American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines have placed pre-orders or options for the Overture. Concorde first flew commercially in 1976 and was retired by Air France in May 2003 and by British Airways in November 2003, following the Air France crash in 2000 that killed 113 people.
