Boom is a startup company that is looking to design and manufacture supersonic passenger planes that will be able to travel at 2.2 times the speed of sound.
The company is still early on in the development process of such aircraft, though, as it has only started working on the first prototype, which will be launched into flight by late 2017.
While the plan seems ambitious, one major name has revealed its belief that Boom can make it happen. The company is no other than Virgin Galactic, a unit of Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
Today we're partnering with @Virgin and @VirginGalactic to build and fly supersonic aircraft https://t.co/NCfqAMhTNa
— Boom Technology (@boomaero) March 23, 2016
The partnership will see Virgin Galactic provide assistance to Boom in building and flying supersonic aircraft. The deal between the two companies, which is worth about $2 billion, is said to be a 10-plane option for Virgin Galactic.
This does not mean that Virgin Galactic has already actually purchased the aircraft. The option only confirms that the company plans to purchase 10 planes if Boom is actually able to deliver the supersonic aircraft as planned.
The deal complements the 15-plane option that Boom signed with an undisclosed European firm. All in all, the startup's optioned plane investments now total about $5 billion.
As to whether Boom's plan will come together is an entirely different story though, as over the years, airplane manufacturers have been trying and failing to create a supersonic passenger plane. The Mach 2 Concorde by Airbus is the most successful among all attempts, operating for 27 years before being shut down partly due to the price tag of $20,000 per seat.
Blake Scholl, the founder of Boom, said that affordability is among the top priorities for the startup, adding that the Concorde was more of an economic failure than a technical failure.
"We are talking about the first supersonic jet people can afford to fly," Scholl said.
Early estimates for flights taken on Boom's supersonic passenger plane include $5,000 for a trip from New York to London, which will be done in half the time compared to the speed of today's passenger planes. Flights from San Francisco to Tokyo, which usually take 11 hours, will only take 4.5 hours and will cost $6,500.
In addition, Scholl said that the aircraft will only carry 40 passengers per flight, which would help in keeping the price low per seat, but the demand high.
Boom's 11 employees collectively hold serious talent, some of them came from NASA, some from Lockheed Martin and some from Boeing. Virgin Group will add to the knowledge pool, with its The Spaceship Company to provide engineering, design and manufacturing services, along with flight tests and operations.
Regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration, however, currently prohibit an aircraft from travelling at supersonic speeds over land, which would mean that once Boom's planes are in the air, it will mostly be sticking with international flights that travel over water.
Success in the project could provide leverage for regulations to be amended to allow domestic flights using the supersonic passenger planes.
