Supersonic Aircraft Showing Progress with Engine, Avionics

Boom Supersonic's lofty ambition to field a Mach 1.7 commercial airliner by 2029 appears to have gained some more momentum as maintenance partner StandardAero agreed to test and assemble the airplanes' Symphony engines at its facility in Texas.

At the 2024 Farnborough Air Show, Boom revealed for the first time the aircraft's Honeywell  Anthem avionics suite, which now incorporates Universal Avionics’ ClearVision enhanced flight vision system (EFVS).  The system installed on the Overture will include Universal’s second-generation head-wearable device, SkyLens II, along with the EVS-5000 multispectral camera, connected switches, computer units, and the Aperture visual management system.

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The company claims it can overcome concerns about noise, environmental impact, and costs, and pick up where Concorde left off.

Speaking at the Farnborough Airshow, Boom CEO Blake Scholl reiterated expectations that the  Overture aircraft will gain certification and enter service by 2029.

“We remain on track to having passengers in the air in five years’ time," said Scholl. "Passengers and airlines are hungry for supersonic flight...As we stand here at Farnborough in 2024, it's now been two decades since either Boeing or Airbus have launched an all-new airliner program, so we've stopped progressing—and in many ways, we've gone backwards,” he remarked.

“Passengers and airliners are not well served by the duopoly we have, and I believe what is important is that all of us can travel faster, travel better, and experience what it's like to live not just in our city but on the planet," he added. "To do that, we need supersonic flight. We need to make faster airplanes and develop airplanes faster.”

Rapid development is exactly what Boom is accomplishing, according to Scholl. Less than 18 months after Boom decided to develop its own turbofan engine—because Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and GE declined to offer a new one—the company expects the full-scale engine core to become operational in late 2025.

Hardware rig tests of the Symphony have begun, and Boom will conduct more than 30 such tests to allow for validation and optimization of all key engine components, ranging from fan and nozzle acoustics to combustor fuel efficiency.

As part the rapid development approach, Boom and StandardAero agreed to expand their cooperation. StandardAero had already signed up to provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul to Symphony engines, and the partnership will now include assembly and testing of the engines at its facility in San Antonio, Texas.

“We are excited to expand our role to include the assembly and testing of Symphony engines, further supporting the development of next-generation flight with Boom,” said StandardAero chairman and CEO Russell Ford. “Our collaboration is a testament to StandardAero’s world-class engineering capabilities and dedication to delivering solutions that power the future of air travel.”

The Symphony assembly line will scale to produce 330 engines per year in a facility with 100,000-sq-ft production space.

Additionally, Boom announced it will team with ATI for advanced high-temperature materials and components for Symphony’s high-pressure compressor integrated blade and disk stages, as well as the turbine assembly. Advanced nickel-based superalloys will enable the Symphony to achieve high performance and reliability in sustained supersonic operation.