Will This Groundbreaking Engine Bring Back Supersonic Travel?
After finding business partners and designing the engine, Boom Supersonic has unveiled the Boom Symphony: the engine that will take their…
After finding business partners and designing the engine, Boom Supersonic has unveiled the Boom Symphony: the engine that will take their Overture aircraft into the sky at supersonic speeds.
With their goal of bringing supersonic travel back into the mainstream, there’s no doubt that Boom Supersonic needs a sufficiently powerful engine. But more than that, they also need to meet the demands of a changing aviation landscape. From reducing the noise output to shifting from fossil fuels to something more sustainable, it’s now much harder to operate a supersonic jet than during the era of the Concorde.
And that’s where Boom Supersonics’s groundbreaking Symphony engine comes in. Developed in partnership with Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT), GE Additive, and StandardAero, the Symphony engine is a completely modern engine designed to meet the requirements of modern supersonic travel.
What Makes It Special?
Boom Supersonic intends to create “an economically and environmentally sustainable supersonic airplane — a combination unattainable with the current constraints of derivative engines and industry norms,” according to the CEO and founder Blake Scholl. So, to accomplish this monumental task, the company has designed the Symphony engine, which will run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel while also operating at lower volumes.
Although Boom Supersonic originally partnered with Rolls Royce to provide the engines as they developed the ones for the Concorde, they recently parted ways, but that didn’t stop the company. Now, partnered with FTT, Boom can create an engine for the flagship Overture aircraft. With the partnership with GE Additive, they can implement revolutionary additive manufacturing techniques to create a more advanced and capable engine. And with StandardAero, they’ll ensure that the engine is built to be maintainable and reliable.
Symphony will also be both powerful and — according to Boom Supersonic — economical, providing a thrust of 35,000 pounds while providing 25% more time on wing and a 10% improvement in operating costs when compared to derivative engine approaches. Symphony and Overture will meet all FAA and EASA existing engine certification requirements to ensure a reasonable noise level while they hope that it will operate at net-zero carbon.
So When Will We See It?
Now, it’s not like you’ll be able to take a flight on the Overture tomorrow or even a few years from now. Production for Symphony and the aircraft is slated to begin in 2024, with testing in 2026, first flights in 2027 and certification in 2029. So there are still six years if everything goes exactly to plan, but if it does become a commercial success, we could see supersonic travel become widespread.
For their own sake, Boom Supersonic needs to ensure that they can create this aircraft in a timely manner as they’ve already received orders from United Airlines, American Airlines and others for over 70 of their jets. They’ve also teamed up with Northrop Grumman to create a military jet for the US Defense Department.
If all goes well, Boom Supersonic could bring back supersonic travel with their groundbreaking airliner and engine, potentially leading to a future where supersonic aircraft are as commonplace as subsonic ones.
If you want to read my previous article in which I talk about Boom Supersonic and their pursuits, click here:
Remember the Concorde? Get Ready for Boom Supersonic!
With Boom Supersonic’s pitch to bring back supersonic airliners, we might see a new age of high-speed air travel!medium.com
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Sources
Holt, K, “Boom finds a new design partner for its Symphony supersonic jet engine”, Engadget, 13 Dec 2022
Spry, J, “Boom Supersonic unveils new Symphony engine for faster-than-sound Overture airliner”, SPACE.com, 31 Dec 2022
Coldewey, D, “Boom takes the wraps off its supersonic Symphony engine design”, Tech Crunch, 14 Dec 2022
Saunders, B, “Supersonic Jet Company Boom Unveils Its Next-Generation Symphony Jet Engine”, Hypebeast, 21 Dec 2022
Boom Supersonic, “Symphony”
Young, C, “Symphony: Boom Supersonic announces it will develop its own aircraft engine” Interesting Engineering, 14 Dec 2022