Concorde had no computer on board and had a movable nose; Such was the attacking shop on landing that Concorde’s nose had to be lowered to show the pilots where the ground was. The XB-1 slips that in favor of cameras on the nose and landing gear, hopefully reducing the complexity. And the design of the aircraft has been refined (in a virtual simulator) to provide a high fineness ratio, a hefty way of saying that the aircraft is narrow and pointed shaped to reduce drag at high speeds.
XB-1 will be piloted by Commander Bill ‘Doc’ Shoemaker, a 21-year-old U.S. Navy pilot who has led several F-18 combat missions. He has also served as an instructor for flight tests at the U.S. Pily Test Pilot School and previously worked for Zee.Aero, one of (even co-founder of Google) Larry Page’s self-funded starting cars for flying cars.
If XB-1 proves successful, then Boom will move to start building his supersonic aircraft in large size, Overture. Overture is a craft that has less than a hundred people at “business class” comfort levels. And for “business class” prices, they can fly in four hours and thirty minutes from, for example, Tokyo to Seattle.
One problem with being a singular example of the technology in history is that all discussions inevitably lead back to Concorde. One of the biggest failures of that aircraft was emissions: it was notorious for gassing and emitting highly toxic particles. Boom has already promised that its test program will be completely “carbon neutral” and that its aircraft will set the bar for energy-efficient aircraft.
“One of the main reasons Concorde was not affordable was that it simply consumed too much fuel,” Scholl said. “50 years to go and none of these things need be anymore.” XB-1 and Overture are designed to use alternative fuels, instead of the kerosene mix found on some liners today. Scholl said the company is also working with other companies to develop airline fuel through direct air intake.
Direct air collection is a system that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and recombines it to produce hydrocarbons. Companies like Carbon Engineering are working on systems to produce fuel in this way to create (if you shake) “carbon neutral fuel”. Of course, this still requires the burning (and release) of carbon back into the atmosphere, but the hope is that, if more CO2 is extracted than used, it will be more virtuous than existing fossil fuels.
Boom also promises that its aircraft will use less fuel through a combination of efficient materials and better engines. Scholl said the aircraft are powered by a ‘quiet, efficient turbofan system […] a similar engine architecture to what you would see today on any large Airbus or Boeing wide-body aircraft, just adapted for supersonic flight. And recently, Boom announced that it was partnering with Rolls Royce to build an engine for Overture.
Concorde was killed by economy – it was too expensive to run and far too expensive to support, especially since it was getting older. British Airways had to buy its contingent from the UK government at famous knock-down rates to keep them going. Scholl says that Overture will be expensive, but that Boom’s lack of a legacy is as much an advantage as a burden. “We do not have to think about the 737 Max, we do not have to think about how the factories should run for our latest generation of aircraft,” he said, claiming that Boom has the “luxury of focus.”
Scholl expects Overture to cost just $ 6 billion to develop – by comparison, in 2011 Seattle Times report claimed that Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner cost $ 32 billion for design. But Scholl plans to sell 2,000 Overture aircraft for “$ 200 million a doll”, which he says is a “$ 200” [billion] up to $ 400 billion market opportunity. “These goals represent an ambitious plan to effectively swallow the majority of global business travel. If successful, such a move would make traditional business class obsolete for a long time.
Except, of course, that launching a supersonic aircraft to bring the world together and engage a new generation of business travelers is not ideal in 2020. We obviously have trouble dealing with a pandemic that has dramatically discouraged air travel for all but essential reasons. As I wrote back in June, COVID-19 will see a dramatic decrease in people flying, enough to kill some of the airline industry’s largest aircraft. (That said, the economy of flight means that a smaller aircraft with fewer passengers, which fly at capacity each time, is likely to remain profitable. Which suggests that the sub-100 capacity and high speed of Overture are the ideal vehicle may be for post-pandemic travel).
“We are still a few years away from flying Overture and carrying our first passengers,” Scholl said, “and by the time this happens, COVID will be a distant nightmare.” Scholl says Boom “designed Overture to be the first post-pandemic aircraft.” Both because you will spend less time in the air, and also to the cabin airflow models Boom is planning to do. Scholl says he expects Overture’s cabin to be “safer than a typical restaurant.”
And Scholl is not too worried about a depression in business travel, saying that video conferencing cannot replace the ‘human connection’. He cited statistics claiming that private air travel, although still below 2019 levels, is still on commercial flights. Scholl expects that, in the next decades or so, when the global health crisis and economic crisis are behind us, it will fly back into demand just as Overture is ready to satisfy it.
Of course, it’s still early days, and right now the first step is on the way to a second supersonic era halfway through a Denver warehouse. But that’s how all these journeys begin, with unlimited (and sometimes groundless) optimism. As the commercial aviation industry enters one of its darkest periods in a generation, perhaps a dose of optimism is just what is needed.
