American Airlines Puts Down Deposit on 20 Boom Supersonic Overture Jets
Boom Supersonic has a second vote of confidence for its Overture jet from a US airline. American Airlines today announced(Opens in a new window) an agreement to buy 20 of the Mach 1.7 airliners, with options for another 20 planes.
Boom's press release notes that American put down an unspecified nonrefundable deposit for the first 20 airframes; delivery of them depends on Boom meeting “industry-standard operating, performance and safety requirements as well as American’s other customary conditions.”
It’s the second order for Overture jets from a US carrier, following the June 2021 announcement from United Airlines of an order for 15 of these supersonic planes, with options for 35 more. Back in 2017, Japan Airlines placed options(Opens in a new window), a commitment short of actual orders, for 20 Overtures.
Boom says Overture will seat from 65 to 80 people and cut overwater flying times by as much as 50%, with a range of 4.890 miles. For example, American’s release quotes flight times of five hours from Miami to London, a trip that has taken roughly 8.5 to 9 hours(Opens in a new window) over the past two days.
Commercial supersonic travel hasn’t been possible anywhere in the world since the 2003 retirement of the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde by Air France and British Airways.
In July, Overture unveiled what it called a “refined” design of Overture that swapped out the previous configuration’s three engines—one under each wing, plus one in the tail—for a layout of four engines, two in separate pods under each carbon-composite wing. The plane will fly without needing noisy, fuel-guzzling afterburners but will continue to generate a sufficiently loud sonic boom to limit flights above land to just below Mach 1. Boom also says
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