Supersonic Jet Test Flight Successful, To Halve New York-Rome Travel Time

American airline company Boom Technology is moving closer to launching its first supersonic airliner, named Overture. Designed to travel faster than the speed of sound, the supersonic airline is expected to carry passengers by 2029.

The company claimed the aircraft would cut the travel time from New York to Rome to just four hours and 40 minutes, half the usual eight-hour journey.

Last week, Boom Supersonic XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft flew faster than the speed of sound, becoming the first piloted non-military aircraft to break the sound barrier since the Concorde was retired from service in 2003.

The Overture airliner will exceed the speed of fighter jets, which typically travel around Mach 2. Boom plans to develop an airliner capable of flying at Mach 1.7. The Mach number measures an aircraft's speed relative to the speed of sound.

Boom Supersonic does not intend to fly supersonically over land. Instead, it intends to fly at Mach 0.94 over land, which the company says will enable 20 per cent faster overland travel than typical passenger planes, even when travelling subsonically.

It claims that Overture's engine design will ensure that it is not noisier than existing subsonic aircraft during flight. It also aims to reduce emissions and its carbon footprint by using up to 100 per cent renewable aviation fuel instead of traditional jet fuel.

Boom is not the only company developing supersonic airliners. Spike Aerospace, an American company, is also working on a supersonic business jet that aims to "deliver the world in half the time."

The Concorde, a French-British supersonic airliner operated by British Airways and Air France from 1976 to 2003, was the first commercial supersonic airliner. It had a capacity of up to 128 passengers and cruised at Mach 2. It regularly flew from London to New York in around three hours.