With an infusion of capital from a Saudi Arabia investment fund, the Boom SST is about to take to the skies before its Hawaii flights, which could commence even before the end of this decade.
United Airlines is one of the investors, and there’s talk that Boom SST would be a perfect fit for Hawaiian Airlines too, which currently invests in the Seaglider airplane to shake up interisland travel. With Boom SST, the time between Los Angeles and Honolulu would be two hours. International destinations from Hawaii could also benefit. For example, Sydney, Seoul and Tokyo.
Boom said this month it has now received investments totaling more than $700 million towards putting its Overture SST into commercial service in the next six years. The company warned, however, that it may require a total investment of up to $9 billion to get off the ground.
The four-engine Overture aircraft will carry 80 passengers to and from Hawaii and other destinations.
Overture will operate at Mach 1.7, which is slower than its predecessor, Concorde, but more quietly and with greater efficiency. The company CEO hopes that, in the end, ticket prices can be somewhat consistent with current Business fares.
XB-1 will take to the skies in test flight before year’s end.
Boom has been test operating its XB-1 demonstrator plane on the ground, and plans to take to the skies for the first time in December. The plane is a smaller, three-engine one designed to test the technology associated with commercial Overture aircraft.
The testing to date has taken place at Mojave, where speeds up to 108 mph have been achieved. Boom CEO Scholl said that the December test flight is in preparation for next year’s supersonic flight of the demonstrator.
“We’re real darn close. We are on the one-yard line on this program. It’s a really, really exciting time.”
Boom Supersonic
$500 billion investment fund steps in to help Boom Supersonic.
The latest investor, the $500 billion Saudi Arabian Neom fund, is intent on helping solve “the world’s most complex problems.” The Kingdom’s two airlines, Saudia and Riyadh, are also considering orders for the new supersonic jetliner. Boom confirms that the Middle East is a target market for the plane. Boom’s CEO said, There is an enormous amount of interest in supersonic flight all over the world but particularly in the Middle East, and the reason is that supersonic provides a massive advantage for connecting hubs.”
Boom also is intent on opening its Greensboro Overture Superfactory next year. The first full-size Overture craft is due off the production line in 2026.
Absolutely 💯% love the idea of less travel time to the islands.
Will they also operate out of San Francisco?
The XB-1 is something of a joke. It is only a theory testing device. If it was a proper scaled model of the proposed full sized airliner then the tests might be able to be taken more seriously. The situation is sad because we have the technology in the USA to build a proper scaled model of the full sized proposed airliner and do serious testing with that device.
You evidently don’t work for the company and don’t the actual purpose of the XB1 in relationship to the program or you wouldn’t have those comments.
Concorde was born near 60 years ago! Sixty years agooooo! And they need 9 Billions to make something similar? This is the typical Scam of this days…Asking for Billions to make a renewed version of something old…..60 years ago…
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For the last 60 years, the SST was and is the natural next progression in aerospace engineering for air transportation. Now we are at a time and place when the technology engineering and business cost are enabling this enterprise for a second time We may be near the breakthrough in air transportation the SST revolution was about all along. However a small 60 seat SST or a small VIP elit only aircraft will fail just like the Concord did and for the same hard factors. A true Trans Pac long range SST aircraft with 200+ passer capacity will be the winer leveraging the new engineering and technology. Nothing less will work. Faster Further Higher and with more comfort is the back to the future we may soon see in Hawaii and Pacific air travel.
Interesting. I was just listening to a podcast yesterday about the Saudi oil demand sustainability program. The premise of the article was that the program is designed to increase oil demand by investing in projects that rely on oil. One of the programs they discussed was commercial supersonic flights because they consume way more fuel than standard flights. Does HI want to be a part of this?
I am Totally against this. It will ruin the Island to a degree that will not be saved in the Future. There should be even Less Planes coming to the Island instead of more. It´s already chaotic as it is. Why not ask Real Hawaiiens about this?
While the prices *could* match current business rates or not, doesn’t mean they will. They’ll be closer to current first class, maybe more.
With only 80 passengers it will be costly. However flying from the west coast to Hawaii in 2 hours you could turn the plane around and fly back to the west coast. Crews wouldn’t need to layover- less than 6 hours of flying! Reducing cost per ticket!
Bring it on. But I doubt they will match current business fares.