Boom Supersonic made history today (Jan. 28) when its XB-1 jet broke the sound barrier for the first time.
Boom Supersonic's chief test pilot Tristan "Geppetto" Brandenburg took off in the company's XB-1 jet from the storied Mojave Air & Space Port in California this morning under mostly clear skies. Some 11.5 minutes into the flight — the 12th overall for the XB-1 — at an altitude of around 35,000 feet (10,668 meters), the test plane exceeded Mach 1, the speed of sound, marking the first time a civil aircraft has gone supersonic over the continental United States.
"This is such a huge step, building the first civil supersonic jet, you know, right here in America," said Boom advisor and former Chief Engineer Greg Krauland during the company's livestream on X. "This jet really does have much of the enabling technologies that are going to enable us to go ahead and to build a commercial supersonic airliner that is available to the masses."
The XB-1 went supersonic two additional times during the flight, at about 17 and 22 minutes after takeoff, to allow pilots to test the jet's handling performance during supersonic flight. The size of the experimental airspace for today's flight limited how long the jet was able to fly above Mach 1.
"I'm just to-the-moon excited about how well that went," Krauland said during today's livestream.
The flight was filmed and monitored by two different chase planes, a Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet, and a Northrop T-38 Talon, the same aircraft NASA uses to train its astronauts.
The XB-1 landed roughly 30 minutes after liftoff on its bespoke landing gear, designed specifically for the aircraft.
Today's test flight was livestreamed using broadband internet beamed to Earth from SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation. A Starlink Mini unit was installed in the T-38 chase plane used in today's test flight, enabling unprecedented live video of the aviation milestone.
"We're getting broadband speeds, you know, at point eight Mach [at] 31,000 feet ... The capability that is brought to the game of flight test has been pretty incredible, actually — very surprised by the capability," Boom Supersonic Chief Flight Test Engineer Nick Sheryka said during the company's livestream.
The XB-1 is a technology demonstrator, meaning Boom Supersonic is testing it in order to validate the design and subsystems of the jet to pave the way for the company's Overture passenger aircraft.
Overture is a planned 64-to-80 seat supersonic aircraft that Boom Supersonic hopes can become the first passenger jet to fly faster than the speed of sound since the British-French Concorde, which made its last flight in 2003.
Colorado-based Boom Supersonic already has over 100 orders for Overture from major airliners worldwide. The company hopes to help return supersonic airliners to service, potentially cutting flight times in half.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
