American Airlines will purchase 20 Boom Supersonic

[RobPol471 173]

American Airlines and Boom Supersonic announced the airline’s agreement to purchase up to 20 Overture aircraft, with an option for 
an additional 40. American has paid a non-refundable deposit on the initial 20 aircraft.
 Overture is expected to carry passengers at twice the speed of today’s fastest commercial aircraft.

https://news.aa.com/news/news-details/2022/American-Airlines-Announces-Agreement-to-Purchase-Boom-Supersonic-Overture-Aircraft-Places-Deposit-on-20-Overtures-FLT-08/default.aspx

[dave2013 1,130]

Wow.  First United Airlines and now American.

This certainly lends more credibility and perhaps viability to the project.  I hope it actually comes to fruition.

I checked Boom's website again and must say that I find the marketing language about "sustainability" and "net zero" to be a bit laughable.  This is a plane that will carry relatively few passengers and use 4 relatively inefficient engines to jet them around at supersonic speeds.  

I'm betting that only well-to-do folks will be able to afford to fly on this thing.  The marketing is aimed at the upper middle class folks who want to feel good about being "green" while flying on a luxury supersonic jet that burns twice as much, or more, fuel per passenger mile as a standard airliner.

Nevertheless, I support the project and look forward to seeing it actually fly.

We'll see.

Dave

Edited August 17, 2022 by dave2013

[martin-w 3,235]

43 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

Wow.  First United Airlines and now American.

 

I think its three airlines now. United Airlines. Virgin Atlantic and now American Airlines. 

 

 

 

43 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

This is a plane that will carry relatively few passengers and use 4 relatively inefficient engines to jet them around at supersonic speeds.

 

How they ay they intend to reduce environmental impacts is here.

https://boomsupersonic.com/flyby/post/booms-principles-of-sustainability

They say "committed to a net-zero carbon future". They don't claim to be achieving that initially as far as I can see. I define it as something they aspire to. 80% reduction in lifecycle CO2 SAF is their preferred fuel. 

 

Quote

 

Reducing our impacts

• We are conducting an exhaustive search of the most promising present and future sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) projects to help address our airplanes’ greenhouse gas footprints. Today, the best SAF on the market offer an 80% reduction in lifecycle CO2 over conventional jet fuel. In January 2019, we successfully tested XB-1’s engines using a blend of fuel that was ~80% SAF from waste animal fats. This test program gave us valuable information about how XB-1 engines perform using SAF. In June 2019, we signed a partnership with Prometheus Fuels to deliver low-carbon fuel during the XB-1 program. Prometheus’ technology efficiently converts atmospheric CO2 into jet fuel using clean energy. And we’ve pledged to make the XB-1 ground and flight test program carbon neutral through SAF and carbon offsets.
• Although construction on the Overture final assembly line won’t begin for several years, we’re already planning how to design a LEED-certified production facility. Overture’s manufacturing center will also take advantage of on- and off-site clean electricity generation.

 

•  

Edited August 17, 2022 by martin-w

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Option to purchase an aircraft that hasn’t even been built yet or had a test flight. Wow! And a non-refundable deposit paid too. 😳 I guess they have plenty of money.

[W2DR 1,860]

So, if it flies twice as fast will the tickets be half as much?

[mazelda 124]

Telling them they can't fly supersonic over UK/Europe  would seem like a nice little sting in the tail.

We have long memories

[skully 1,045]

Someone's been studying the B-58 Hustler.

[richjb2 195]

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Option to purchase an aircraft that hasn’t even been built yet or had a test flight. Wow! And a non-refundable deposit paid too. 😳 I guess they have plenty of money.

No....the US Taxpayer has plenty of money! 

In the words of Pete Conrad, this is still very much "Tomorrowland".  

Rich Boll

Wichita KS.

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Concorde’s most lucrative route was LHR to JFK. This allowed British businessmen to fly to New York departing 10:30 and land at 09:00. They could conduct 3-4 hours of business and depart JFK around 14:30 getting back to LHR around 23:00.

The reverse of this doesn’t really work because of the time difference and direction of travel.

So if businessmen are going to use the speed of Boom to gain a time advantage over sub-sonic flights which will be the lucrative routes? I don’t see it being used by holidaymakers.

[Bob Scott 7,720]

Let's not hijack this thread with more green energy fantasy vs reality debate, please.  It's already been done.

[GACSavannah 227]

6 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Option to purchase an aircraft that hasn’t even been built yet or had a test flight. Wow!

Where I work we sell a lot of airplanes that have been designed but not yet built or flown. I'm not suggesting that this lends any sincerity to Boom, I am still comfortably in the doubters section on this one. I think this has just about an equal chance of seeing certification as Hyperion does, which is to say not very much of one. Having said that, I sincerely hope that they succeed and do well into the future.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

8 minutes ago, GACSavannah said:

Where I work we sell a lot of airplanes that have been designed but not yet built or flown.

I suppose that depends on the complexity of the design. A delta wing commercial supersonic aircraft is about as complex as they come. Modern designers have an advantage over those for Concorde as wind tunnels had to be used back then to get the wing shape correct whereas computers can do much of that now.

Concorde has helped all future developers as they had to come up with solutions no one had needed before. Like the computer-controlled ramps that slowed air entering the engines from 1300mph down to 500mph in 11 feet. Without that there would have been no supersonic flight.  I’ve seen no mention of how that will be handled by Boom.

Nice to see you around Kerry. Still remember my trip to the US back in ‘98 and your guided tour of KCLT. 😁 Hope you and the family are keeping well.

[Luke 782]

7 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

And a non-refundable deposit paid too. 😳 I guess they have plenty of money.

I'm curious how much the deposit actually was, per aircraft. That makes a difference.

Cheers!

[BrianW 124]

4 hours ago, skully said:

Someone's been studying the B-58 Hustler.

That was this first thing I thought of too when I saw the new design.

 

There was also this:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_Model_58-9

Edited August 17, 2022 by BrianW

[GACSavannah 227]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Nice to see you around Kerry. Still remember my trip to the US back in ‘98 and your guided tour of KCLT. 😁 Hope you and the family are keeping well

I remember that day, it was a lot of fun! We have been down here in Savannah, about 4 hours south of Charlotte since 2007.I do miss the airline world, but would not trade it back for what I am doing today 🙂