From The Denver Business Journal

Denver startup Boom Technology Inc. has designed a passenger jet capable of flying two times faster than the speed of sound. A test version of Boom’s supersonic passenger airliner for business travelers should begin flying in 2019.

Houston to NYC at Mach 2.2 Getting Closer

Boom Technology’s supersonic passenger jet under development in Denver. Image: Boom Technology

The company has drawn orders from Japanese airline giant JAL, which flies to 56 countries, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic airline, which has placed dibs on 10 of Boom’s planes.

The first flight of Boom’s XB-1 demonstration plane, a scaled-down test version known by employees as the “Baby Boom,” was planned for late 2018 or early 2019 in the skies near Colorado’s Centennial Airport. The test flights, below the speed of sound, would show the flight worthiness of the aircraft’s design. Later, supersonic testing of the full-scale passenger jet version is planned in California’s Mojave Desert.

Houston to NYC at Mach 2.2 Getting Closer

Image: Boom Technology

Its version for airlines is a 55-passenger plane, available for service starting in the mid-2020s, and capable of flying routes of 5,229 miles and a Mach 2.2 cruising speed.

Boom’s jet is designed to fly trans-Atlantic routes from London to New York City in three hours and 11 minutes, or it could make a direct Denver-to-Tokyo flight in just under seven hours.

Blake Scholl, Boom’s CEO and founder, describes how business travelers could conduct a day’s worth of business in Japan’s capital without adjusting to time changes and jet lag.

“What we’re doing isn’t just shaving off an hour here or there. We’re changing access to the planet,” Scholl said.

Boom has also raised more than $51.8 million from investors including San Francisco-based 8VC, New York City-based RRE, Chicago-based Lightbank and Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator.

 

 


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