“There is! The XB-1 is supersonic. ”
These words broke the expectant silence that has governed a transmission study located in the Mojave air and space port in California, and at the same time confirmed a historical feat. The first civil supersonic plane manufactured in the United States had broken the sound barrier.
At the command of the XB-1, the pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg accelerated to show that the tireless work of the Boom Technology team had been worth it. On land, in front of the camera, he was Mike Bannisterwho was chief pilot of the Concorde fleet of British Airways for almost a decade.
Baby Boom, the basis of overture
The XB-1, also known as “Baby Boom,” has traveled a long way until you get here. Its initial design was released in 2016, but financing for its construction did not arrive until a year later. After suffering several delaysthe filming tests began in 2022 to give rise to the opening flight of March last year.
Since then, Boom Technology team has coordinated almost a dozen test flights, but none of them as important as this. The fastest speed on those test flights was reached on January 10, which the company registered as Mach 0.95. This Tuesday, before the watchful eye of 25 engineers, managers, future clients and thousands of spectators, the XB-1 reached Mach 1.12 at an altitude of 35,290 feet (10,756 meters).
The XB-1 on a trial flight
The XB-1 is a demonstrator whose technology will become the basis of the Overture, the passenger plane that wants to happen to concord with supersonic commercial flights. As the manufacturer points outthe future plane will benefit with four very important characteristics:
- Increased reality vision system: Since the plane will have a long nose and a high angle of attack, the Overture will have an augmented reality vision system so that the pilots can have good visibility of the track. That is, we will not see a mobile nose like the Concorde.
- Digitally optimized aerodynamics: The engineers explored thousands of designs for the XB-1 with computational fluid dynamics simulations (CFD). This same type of resource will be used for the design of the Overture.
- Carbon fiber compounds: Overture will be manufactured almost entirely with carbon fiber compound materials, which promises to offer an aerodynamic design with a resistant and light structure.
- Supersonic shots: The experience obtained in the XB-1 about the development of the specialized shots will be applied to the Overture and its turbophah engine.
More than two decades have passed since supersonic commercial flights ceased to be an option. Boom Technology has an ambitious project among hands. He hopes to be the protagonist in a new era of high -speed civil flights. The Overture should be able to transport between 64 and 80 passengers to Mach 1.7 towards the end of the decade.
But it is a shared ambition. The manufacturer has received more than a hundred airline orders like United AirlinesAmerican Airlines and Japan Airlines. And their plans seem to be very seriously. Last year he completed his superfactory overture In Greensboro, North Carolina, where, if everything is going as planned, its aircraft will be assembled.
Images | Boom Technology | Screen capture
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