Archives for posts with tag: Overture

The Boom Overture : A Return to Supersonic

November 11, 2025 //
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Social Media continues to be flooded with images, stories and statistics about the Concorde, a troubled engineering marvel that retired in 2003. The ‘Concorde’ feed highlights the love and awe the aircraft inspired. The retirement had a sense of finality about it, like a curtain being drawn, not on just the Concorde but on Supersonic Travel itself, the reason being the issues were not about the aircraft but about the accompanying noise pollution at take off ,landing and the shadow called the sonic boom.

Boom Supersonic a startup founded in 2014, but birthed in the mind at least 2-3 years prior decided to do something about. Their CEO Blake Scholl decided he was going to make a supersonic aircraft that not only went supersonic , but was quiet and without an accompanying sonic boom over land. This is the story of The Overture and is part three of the QueSST series which you can read here. https://theaviationevangelist.com/2025/10/09/the-boom-xb-1-the-little-plane-that-could/ & https://theaviationevangelist.com/2025/11/04/the-lockheed-x-59-quesst-pinocchio-swordfish/

The Overture First Iteration

The first iteration of the Overture was unveiled in Nov 2016 along with the first iteration of the XB-1 the one third scale technological demonstrator of the Overture, and both of them looked extremely similar to what the Concorde looked like! The difference being the technologies available in 2016 vs 1969 when the Concorde first flew.

Overcoming the laws of physics means any supersonic aircraft needs to be shaped a certain way, and this is where the Concorde design was lightyears ahead of its time. Concorde was the only successful supersonic jet and it made sense to look at the Concorde baseline, the original Overture was to be a trijet as was the original XB-1.

By 2018 the XB-1 subscale model was ready for wind tunnel tests and the first set of tests confirmed the predicted aerodynamic calibrations that were arrived at through CFD was off by 30%. Such a difference keeps magnifying as it goes up in scale to the full sized Overture. The Team at Boom had to go back to the drawing boards after almost 4 years of work and rework the design of the XB-1 which in turn would impact the Overture.

The very first iteration of the the Overture & XB-1 : Pic Source : The Independent

Repeated finetuning of the design resulted in the XB-1 that broke the sound barrier in early 2025 with no apparent sonic boom (uses a concept called Mach Cutoff), the jet itself was still in a trijet configuration but looked considerably different from the original when it rolled out on Oct 7,2020.

The tests (both CFD & wind tunnel) highlighted the design on the final XB-1 was not scalable to the Overture and there would have to be a complete rework on the fuselage, wings and engines of the Overture. Some of the highlighted issues were high take off and landing speeds due to the very low aspect ratio on the reworked XB-1’s wing, the very high angle of attack that Boom addressed with an augmented reality system, a trijet would not produce enough thrust practically to push the bigger Overture to supersonic.

In July 2022 Boom unveiled its significantly reworked Overture. The unveiling was done after considerable CFD testing followed by wind tunnel testing across five locations in the USA & Europe covering various flight regimes.The fuselage and wings looked extremely sculpted and the aircraft featured four underwing podded engines instead of the original three.

The Design

At transonic speeds (Mach 0.8-1.2) local air flows accelerate over and around the aircraft fuselage and wings can reach the speed of sound. The minimum speed at which this occurs varies from aircraft to aircraft and is known as critical Mach number. The shockwaves formed at these localized zones cause a sudden increase in drag is called wave drag. To mitigate the strength and number of shockwaves an aircraft’s cross sectional area needs to transition smoothly from front to rear. This is known as Whitcomb Area Rule of 1952 .The phenomenon was observed in various forms by multiple aerodynamicists before Whitcomb.

In the case of the Concorde the area rule was applied at Mach 2 and the rear fuselage was extended by 12.2’ on the production aircraft over the prototype and reduced wave drag by 1.8%. A similar concept was applied to the first iteration of the Overture and XB-1, the results we have already spoken of. The final iteration of the Overture extensively uses the area rule to maximum effect.

The external specs of the Boom Overture are a length of 201 feet ,a wing span of 106 feet and a height of 36 feet. The interior cabin is expected to be 79 feet in length with an aisle height of 6.5 feet, good enough for a tall person to walk through at full height. It will be capable of Maxh 1.7 at 60,000 feet cruising altitude and a max range of 4.250 NM approx 350NM more than the Concorde. https://apnews.com/press-release/pr-newswire/technology-airlines-climate-and-environment-7e88c34a01a4194c6f1e6b4760d2bb86

A front view of the nose is the first observation of the rule. Where subsonic aircraft bodies in general are circular to oblong in appearance the Overture’s nose and body behind has a distinct oval shape (left ↔️right) like an egg starting from a singular point the tip of the nose. Much like the final XB-1 the nose slopes upwards at a much higher angle from the nose tip than the bottom, like a cone that has been pushed down flattening the bottom. The oval shape of the nose permits the cabin to have the maximum permissible height allowing for passenger comfort as they walk through the aisle while at the same time minimizing aircraft front on cross section. The reason for the differing angles top and bottom of the nose tip is to control shockwaves. One of the main lessons learnt from the XB-1 was shockwaves tend to be unpredictable when the nose is a perfect cone and sometimes tend to blanket the vertical stabilizer, doing so prevents the occurrence and ensures a smooth flow over the nose and aft across the fuselage.

A front view of the Boom Overture: Pic Source: Boom Media Assets

The nose slopes up to the cockpit windshield, the cockpit is the widest and tallest part of the fuselage. Much like the XB-70 Valkyrie where the wasting is clearly visible as the fuselage narrows down towards the tail from the cockpit the Overture does the same. In Fact the black stripes that extend from the cockpit and run rearwards forming an incomplete loop around the widest part of the fuselage looks almost Jumbo Jetish from a top view. The fuselage belly is comparatively flat and a similar design is seen on the XB-1. 

Where the Concorde had a drooping nose which was had heavy hinges and actuators, the Overture does away with the entire mechanism and instead has an augmented reality system tested on the XB-1. If the Overture’s system is like the XB-1’s it will have two 4K cameras that are mounted on the nose gear (so they can be retracted completely in flight), the cameras will be at least one large bird’s wingspan apart to build redundancy against bird strikes. The screen inside the cockpit will display a composite image along with airport markings etc if at ground level. The system is a huge weight saving over the Concorde of approx 1650 pounds.

The gull wings of the Overture have a complex geometry.

Boom – FlyBy – It’s About Time For a Bold New Era of Supersonic Flight . The modified delta planform has several special design tweaks to it. The wing appears to have a dihedral angle at the wing root and inboard section which transitions to an almost flat to anhedral angle at the outboard sections. A positive dihedral (approx 3-5° upward angle) helps with lateral stability and keeps the passenger cabin level at cruise. The flat to slight anhedral angle of approx 1° helps optimize supersonic wave drag while maintaining aileron command. The underside of the wings appear to be blended into the fuselage to soften shockwaves.

A side view of the Overture. Note the wing architecture & staggered engines. Pic Source : Boom Media Assets

A look at the leading edge from the top shows off a clear kink much like a cranked delta on the inboard form. The kink slows down the air over the wing even as the aircraft is supersonic. Imagine if you were running towards a fence that is perpendicular to you, when you hit the fence all of you hits it at once, now imagine the fence is at an angle and kinks slightly towards you, when you first run towards it the first bit goes much faster than the rest of the wing after the kink, even though you are running at the same speed and only a little bits of you hits the fence as you keep running, the same is good for the gull wing. The inboard kink generates a powerful vortex at high AoA over the inboard wing which generates lift at takeoff & landing. The vortex prevents air separation and stalling at high angles of attack.

A top view of the Overture. Note the kinks on the leading and trailing edges of the wings and the cropped wingtips. Pic Source : Boom Media Assets

The steep inboard sweep which is in the region of 70-75° transitions to a shallower sweep in the region of 50°, the sweep change happening at the kink or crank, the leading continues its transitionary sweep through to the wing tips The steep inboard geometry delays shock formation and reduces wave drag at Mach 1.7 while the shallower outboard sweep increases wing area which in turn boosts lift while at the same time delaying stall formation. The crank or kink creates a natural break between the inward vortex lift and the outboard attached flow, such geometry results in superior roll authority across the speed regime.

The leading edge further shows a thicker front view profile than the Concorde did, this helps generate more lift across the speed range while at the same time exhibiting heavy contouring. Where the Concorde had an S curved leading edge that was sharp and thin, the Overture has a more ‘traditional airfoil’ although there is nothing traditional about it. At the wing roots the wings tend to blend upwards (dihedral angle) into the tapering fuselage while they drop downwards (neutral to slight anhedral angle) and lower towards the cropped wingtips. Such a design naturally helps with managing roll and gives the wings the distinctive gullwing shape.

The Overture’s cropped wingtips represent an evolution over the Concorde’s pointed ogival delta tips. On the Concorde the tips maximized the wings aspect ratio (span to average chord ratio) while helping minimize wave drag, however they were vulnerable to flutter (vibrations at high speed) on the overture the cropped wingtips ensure the aircraft maximizes area ruling through the whole profile cross section, while details of the crop are not available, we can expect the wing to be about 10-15% more efficient in fuel burn per passenger. Since a large portion of the flight time will be in the subsonic/transonic regime, the cropped wings lessen induced drag aiding quieter takeoffs (the Overture aims to be below 75dB). At supersonic speeds the sharp tips of the Concorde amplified the sonic boom , while the Overture’s cropped wingtips combined with the gullwing design soften the boom signature.

The trailing edge of the wing has a very obtuse lambda (Λ) on it. The first function of the Λ is vortex control, if you look at it relative to the leading edge kink (the vortex generator) it is slightly outboard from it. The shape helps break up and weaken these vortices as they exit the wing surfaces by inducing geometric discontinuity. The trailing edge shape also acts a sonic boom diffuser by preventing the coalescence of shocks and softening the boom overland. The trailing edge Λ and the kink on the leading edge means the wing is also called a cranked arrow.

The Λ on trailing edge helps low speed handling and stall characteristics by promoting an earlier flow separation at the root encouraging an inboard to outboard stall pattern. The overall wing design should have a washout. The trailing edge Λ further reinforces the area rule ethos of the aircraft. The edge has an inboard flap  inboard of the kink and an outboard flap that appears to begin exactly on the kink. On the outermost part of the edge is the aileron. https://boom-press-assets.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Newsroom-Media-Assets/Overture/Videos/Overture-Systems-Configuration.mp4

The four symphony engines of the Overture appear staggered  and spaced out with the inboard engines about 5 feet in front of the outboard engines (no specifics available). The staggering enables the coke bottle design (area rule) and synergizes with the wing’s highly sculpted gull wing design to minimize shockwaves at Mach 1.7, increasing range. The offset also helps with yaw control in the case of asymmetric thrust and improves low speed handling as against the Concorde’s close engines placed further back on the aircraft fuselage.The engine setup looks like a B-58 Hustler from the 1950-60s. The Hustler itself was yet another troubled but genius engineering marvel, from a time when supersonic aerodynamics understanding was still in its infancy.

The wings transition towards the empennage of aircraft. Unlike the Concorde that had an ogival delta that used elevons (combination elevators and ailerons) the Overture has a traditional aircraft’s tail with vertical and horizontal stabilizers. The vertical stabilizer’s slanting leading edge appears to land on the top of the wasting fuselage at the same spot the wingtip’s trailing edge outboard corner finishes, respecting the area rule principle. With a height of approx 18-20 feet and an area of 450-500 sq ft the stabilizer has more area than the Concorde’s at 380 sq ft and height of 27 feet. The rudder on the vertical stabilizer enhances directional stability at high AoA and provides authority in an engine out situation.

The span of the horizontal stabilizers is approx 55-60’ and an area of approx 350-400 sq ft. The stabilizers are set at a slight anhedral angle of 3-4° (cannot confirm) work closely with the vertical stabilizer and provide the aircraft with pitch authority. The control surfaces on the horizontal stabilizers are actually at the very tail of the plane and are again placed in such a manner once again to respect area ruling. The stabilizer is trimmable to manage the angle of incidence for various speed regimes and centre of gravity shifts.

An image showing the structure of the Overture. Pic Source : Boom Media Assets

The landing gear of the Overture is a tricycle setup with the nose gear having two wheels which retracts into itself and forward into the fuselage to lessen its volume profile. The main landing gear features six wheels on each bogie , which is highly unusual for an aircraft weighing in at approx 415,000 pounds. So why take on the additional weight and space? Delta winged aircraft have a normal landing speed of approx 140-160 kts which is considerably faster than a normal subsonic airliner which 135 kts such a speed will require additional braking power plus the added redundancy in case of a blow out.

AoA at take off and landing has always been the central focus to the Concorde’s design. At take off the Concorde’s AoA was between 15-18° and landing approx 15-17°, such an angle was steep enough to entail the droop nose to manage visibility. The Overture with it’s wing and tail design is expected to have a take off AoA of approx 12-14° and a landing AoA of approx 11-13°. Visibility is managed by the augmented reality cameras spoken of earlier. For reference the 777 has a take off AoA of between 12-18° and touchdown of between 6-8°. The Overture aims to have an almost subsonic aircraft type of landing angle.

Design reference points: Boom – Overture & https://boom-press-assets.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Newsroom-Media-Assets/Overture/Videos/Overture-Systems-Configuration.mp4

The Engines

Engines are the key to any aircraft’s success and in the case of SST’s they assume an added importance. They need to be capable of speed, be quiet & efficient in addition to being 100% SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) compatible. Such engines can be expensive to develop and need fresh though and innovation at each step of the design and construction process. To understand SAF read here. https://theaviationevangelist.com/2025/09/25/alternative-aviation-fuels/

By 2017 Boom was on the lookout for an engine partner and Rolls Royce looked the part with their previous experience developing Concorde’s Olympus Snecma 593 turbojets. The partnership with Boom looked like the natural step forward ushering in the sustainable supersonic era (the engines were to be 100% SAF compatible) and the partnership was announced with much fanfare in July 2020. After two years embedded with the Boom Team in Colorado as they narrowed down engine specs and characteristics and then the partnership fell through in September 2022 and by December 2022 Boom decided it was going to develop the Boom Symphony engines inhouse. The parting was cordial but stiff with RR saying that developing a supersonic engine was low on their priorities list and Boom stating they were appreciative of RR’s work.

The reality was RR was wary of another Concorde like disaster where they lost the equivalent of $1.32 Bn per aircraft and did not have the wherewithal to go through the development pains in the tough economic scenario the World was currently in (COVID). Boom for their side felt the engines offered, a low bypass Pearl 700 used in Bombardier Jets aiming for 30-35,000 pounds of thrust per engine with modifications such as the inlets and exhaust with chevrons would seriously compromise efficiency by approx 23-30% below Boom’s targets. Several options were studied but nothing came off. There was added pressure on RR with the worldview on emissions (supersonic aircraft burn 3X fuel compared to subsonic aircraft) and RR’s failed partnership with Airion developing the infinity engine which ended in 2021 with Airion folding up.

Further partnerships were explored by Boom with GE, Pratt & Whitney and even Safran but all of them declined to partner, this is when Boom decided they are going it alone.

The Boom Symphony. Pic Source: Boom Media Assets

The exterior dimensions of the Symphony engine are a length of 42 feet & height of 7 feet. The supersonic inlet is 12 feet in length with the variable geometry exhaust at 19 feet, the turbofan and sprint sore section at 11 feet.The Symphony is a medium bypass twin spool engine with 3 low pressure & 6 high pressure compressors with no afterburner developing 40,000 pounds of thrust per engine.The design of the engine is optimized to the Overture and is 100% SAF compatible.

All engines have three phases suck, bang & blow. The suck is done by the main frontal fan and compressors. The bang is in the sprint core and the blow is through the high & low pressure turbines just before the exhaust.

The inlet of any SST engine is where the magic happens. While the aircraft is supersonic the engines can only gulp in air at between 400-500 mph. The inlet is where the air is slowed down by use of shockwave creation. In the case of Concorde a series of ramps and bleed valves for excess air was used to slow the air down to approx 500 mph from Mach 2. The architecture of the Overture and Symphony is different where the engines are podded below the wings instead of being integrated into them in a cluster as on the Concorde. The Inlet of the Symphony is axis symmetric with a spike at the central axis (much like the Lockheed SR-71). The spike moves back and forth as per the speed of the aircraft and manages the inlet shockwave. In the case of the SR-71 the central spike moved back up to 26” at high supersonic flight. The Symphony will probably be up 18” (speculation).

Boom is currently in the advanced prototyping phase and last month they announced that 95% of all parts were done and have been moved to manufacture. Boom is making use of extensive 3D printing of parts at their printer farm (additive manufacturing) for a number of parts being used in the Symphony prototyping phase. The Sprint Core currently being tested has 193 3D printed parts. The alloy used is Haynes 282 a nickel based alloy that can withstand extreme heat and stress.Such an approach enables rapid prototyping & iteration. An example of the speed they work at is they prefer vertical integration (in-house manufacture) vs waiting upto six months for parts to be delivered and choose to spend a couple of million dollars on the required machine instead.

Currently the Sprint core is being tested at Georgia Tech’s Combustion laboratory where the hot section is currently being put through its paces. Similarly each component of the engine will be tested independently, such an approach saves time and helps with iterations. Once testing is complete across all the engine components, they are integrated into the prototype engines, fired up and parameters checked.

Blake says the Symphony expects to generate thrust early 2026. Such a tight timeline places great pressure on the propulsion team.

Generating 40,000 pounds of thrust on-time is critical to Boom’s future funding (will speak about this).

Symphony Reference: Fact Sheet

The Superfactory, Construction, Assembly & Partners

The 180,000 sq ft Boom Superfactory has been constructed by BE&K building group and cost approx $100 Mn to construct. Boom Supersonic Overture Superfactory | BE&K Building Group . The superfactory is at Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina on 65 acres of leased land, which incidentally will also host the factory producing JetZero’s Z4 Blended Wing Body Aircraft. As per a press release, Boom plans to invest $500 Mn in NC of which the building is $100 Mn, that leaves approx $400 Mn in terms of tooling yet to come in. Governor Cooper Announces Boom Will Manufacture Supersonic Aircraft in North Carolina Creating More Than 1,750 Jobs by 2030 . The Superfactory is where the final assembly of the Overture will take place and there is an entire ecosystem of partners involved in constructing the individual parts. Some of them are Aernova for the wings (they list Boom as a top innovation). https://www.aernnova.com/products/wings . Safran Landing Systems will be manufacturing the Overtures beautiful landing gear. https://boomsupersonic.com/press-release/boom-supersonic-and-safran-landing-systems-sign-supplier-agreement-for-overture . The Overture’s empannage is manufactured by Aciturri.There are several other key component suppliers who are part of the ecosystem to help make the Overture flight ready.Fact Sheet. All of them are currently design ready .

Most of the Overture will be carbon composite including the fuselage, wings & empennage. Titanium will probably be used in high stress areas such as the landing gear, engine bays and wing & stabilizer leading edges. The engine internals will have alloys such as Inconel in addition to Haynes 282 mentioned earlier. The Superfactory will have autoclaves (large ovens that cure the layered prepeg under pressure). To put a cost perspective autoclaves can cost up to $4 Mn a pop.

The Overture inflight. Pic Source: Boom Media Assets

Cash Runway

Developing the Overture is estimated to cost approx $8 Bn up from a previous estimation of $6 Bn. Boom has so far raised approx $700 Mn through 12 rounds of funding and the investors have shown patience through the iterations process. However Boom is still well short of the required number by a long way. An IPO might be a way forward, but it will not bridge the gap.

The last funding round in late 2024 was termed as a series A showing a reset within the company, the valuation down to $584 from peak valuations of $1Bn and even $6Bn after the Aug’24 funding. Looking at the volatility of the valuation, it is extremely important for Boom’s Symphony engines to generate 40,000 pounds of thrust in early 2026, this can very well pitch the valuation up skywards and open a round of extremely high funding, Boom should target at least $1 Bn or more (thrust is the single most important milestone from here on) raised after the thrust milestone. 

In Nov ’23 Neom Investment Fund invested in Boom as a strategic investment. NIF is a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and is a key vehicle to Prince Mohd Bin Salman’s Vision 2030, an ambitious plan to diversify Saudi Arabia from its oil dependence. If PIF’s investment in Lucid Motors is any indicator where they have become a majority shareholder with over $8 Bn invested in a relatively short period. Boom has much to look forward to as they generate thrust and tool up their superfactory.

An IPO will probably be at either the Overture’s first supersonic flight or just as FAA certification progresses past 50%. Boom has been working very closely with the FAA at each step and only moves with each part after the FAA certifies it, this vastly cuts lead time. Some of the other aerospace startups like Joby & Archer Aviation have valuations that are at ± $10 Bn and Boom should target at least that much if not more.

Innovation at Work.

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The Boom XB-1 – The Little Plane That Could

October 9, 2025 //
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Intro

On Feb 10th 2025 the Boom XB-1 completed her 13th   and final flight. Baby Boom got to 36,514 feet in altitude, went supersonic all the way to Mach 1.18, flew for 41 minutes and was captured in vivid schlieren images going supersonic. While all these are stunning achievements, there are several standouts. The first is boomless cruise, the XB-1 went supersonic with no audible sonic boom and the second was this aircraft was almost directly responsible for having the 52 year old supersonic over land ban in the United States overturned and finally the Boom XB-1 is the very first privately funded aircraft to go supersonic. This is the story of ‘The Little Plane That Could’.

A Schlieren image of the XB-1 going supersonic. Pic Source : Boom Supersonic website

The Idea

The idea of the ‘Baby Boom’ as a technology demonstrator finds its underpinnings in 2013. Their CEO Blake Scholl was always interested in supersonic flight post a visit to the British Airways Concorde G-BOAG at the Museum of Flight in Seattle and had set up a Google alert if anyone ever came up with the idea of making a supersonic airliner, nothing ever came about. 

A X post of mine with Blake’s reply saying that’s where supersonic started for him.

In 2013 after yet another transatlantic flight delay, he pondered if this was something do-able. Like most ‘cowboy entrepreneurs’ he just decided to do it and Boom was born in 2014 with seed funding of approx $1-2 million and 10 driven engineers.

By 2016 the team at Boom had its first iteration of what the Boom Overture airliner would look like. It was a trijet design with two engines underwing and the third buried inside the tail. The aircraft looked very similar to Concorde being a tailless delta and was designed to carry 65-88 passengers and cruise at Mach 2.2. The aircraft renderings were unveiled at the Paris Air Show and the Boom revealed a letter of intent from Virgin Atlantic (that is a story by itself and speaks volumes of Richard Branson & Blake himself). This triggered a Series A funding of $50 million . The media highlighted the idea of ‘democratization of supersonic air travel’. 

The first iteration of the three engined Boom Overture. Pic Source: Flight Global

Developing a full scale airworthy Overture is a $8bn venture. There are designs to be proven, manufacturing processes to be validated and of course the need to prove that a small start up with almost no background in aerospace can build a supersonic aircraft.

It’s around this time a pivotal realization emerges within the Boom Team. They needed a ‘Falcon 1 moment’, they needed a demonstrator.

The Demonstrator

Small aerospace companies such as Boom have no track record but are extremely ambitious about their disruptive technologies and need a proving platform. Successful subscale (a percentage of full size) demonstrators provide the foundation their technologies and capabilities need at a fraction of the cost (Boom spent $13 million on the XB-1 & $156 million on the project, including early Overture development costs).

The Falcon-1 moment that Blake was referring to was the fourth launch of Space X’s first little rocket. After three failures between 2006-08 and on the verge of bankruptcy Space X had enough money for one more launch. The fourth of course proved private rocket launches were viable and the rest is history.

The XB-1 was a 1:3 scale prototype of the full scale Overture (first iteration of the Overture was a trijet which changed to four engines in 2022. The XB-1 was ready to start testing by 2020 itself, and hence stayed a trijet) and the project goals were to prove privately funded supersonic flight was possible by validating aerodynamic design & highlighting Boom’s manufacturing capabilities.

A mockup of the first iteration of the XB-1 at the Wing over Rockies Museum: Pic Source: Wing Over Rockies

The Design

The XB-1 had two designs. The first iteration had a length of 68 feet and a wingspan of 17 feet. The final iteration had a length of 62.6 feet and a wingspan of 21 feet. The increased wing span of the slender delta on the latter gives the aircraft an improved aspect ratio (even though the wing had a shorter chord at the root, the original had the wing chines right up to the cockpit, while in the latter the wings chines end behind the cockpit and the aircraft was shorter by over 5 feet) which in turn improves aerodynamic handling especially at lower speeds. The wing itself is an ogival delta, where the leading edge has a S shaped curve on the leading edge to manage vortices as lifting devices.

A front view of the XB-1 showing the nose curvature, merged canopy landing gear, underwing inlets & the leading edges of the wings. Pic Source: Boom Supersonic site

The XB-1 uses area ruling right through its entire length. Area Ruling a.k.a Whitcomb Rule is an aerodynamic principle that states the wave drag on an aircraft flying at transonic speeds (Mach 0.8-1.2) is minimized if the total cross sectional area of the aircraft changes smoothly and gradually along its length. An example is the manner in which the cockpit canopy tapers off where the wings begin, and a top view of the XB-1 shows off the horizontal stabilizer roots beginning where the wing trailing edge root ends. 

The underside of the XB-1 clearly shows the metal to the rear and the silhouette of the wings trailing edge root merging with the root of the stabilizer leading edge. Pic Source: Boom website

At the very tip of the nose is a ram air pressure sensor (works as a pitot tube). The ram air pressure tube reads the speed of the aircraft. The tube has two vanes attached to it , the alpha vane for the AoA of the aircraft and the beta vane to measure yaw (lateral directional movement relative to oncoming wind). Such a set up is used on experimental aircraft where data is still being gathered in real time as against an aircraft which already has a data history and is in clean air (undisturbed by the aircraft’s turbulence). Such a system is critical to validating the performance of the aircraft across the entire speed regime.

The nose of the XB-1 looks like a cone that has been flattened on the bottom. The contoured underside of the nose is critical to aircraft stability during take off and landing when the aircraft has a high Angle of Attack (AoA).The original iteration of the XB-1 nose was more conical but computational fluid dynamics (CFD) directed the nose to be flattened on the bottom. The nose design itself took about two years! The shape of the nose had a direct impact on the shape of the wing,the leading edges of the  wings of the final XB-1 are much further back on the fuselage than the original iteration as this combination gave the maximum stability at low speeds (more on this later). To sum up, having a perfectly conical nose means it sheds vortices in unpredictable directions to small changes in aircraft speed and attitude which interfere with the lifting surfaces and the vertical stabilizer. Behind the cockpit on the port side is the AC inlet that creates cold air via a turbocharger inside and bleed vanes behind.

The nose slopes up towards a canopy that is contoured into the curve of the upper nose cone. This gives the canopy a very merged look relative to the nose curve.  The nature of the curve of the canopy in tandem with the overall design of the aircraft means the pilot has very low visibility at landing and takeoff (slender delta wings have high AoA at low speeds). The Concorde had a dropping nose which is a relatively heavy mechanism, The XB-1 uses augmented reality, more on this later.The entire underbelly of the aircraft appears to be relatively flat and heavily contoured, all the way to the rear trijet configuration. The contours merge with the redesigned wings seamlessly. Right through the length of the underbelly of the aircraft  are a series of access panels that merge seamlessly with the surrounding fuselage contour. The panels are held in place by quarter turn fasteners such as those made by Howmet Aerospace. These panels give access to various avionics bays and fuel tanks (refueling happens off the top of the aircraft).

The landing gear on the aircraft have been optimized at the lowest possible cost. The first thing that strikes you about the nose gear is the heavily machined trunnion and pivot arm, they are made of titanium, these parts are mated to mechanisms salvaged for an F-4 & a T-38 to complete the gear. On the gear are two HD cameras and these are part of the augmented reality system that XB-1 uses to overcome the poor cockpit visibility mentioned earlier. They have a 12.5° down angle to compensate for aircraft attitude at low speeds. There are two cameras for redundancy and are spaced more than a standard bird wingspan apart, this ensures a birdstrike cannot take out both cameras at once. As the gear retracts, the strut first compresses to have a smaller profile as it sweeps up & forward into the fuselage.

The main landing gear continues the heavily machined theme and is capable of taking a hard landing load of 200,000 pounds and bouncing right back! The gear is a combination of three arms. The main strut is made of Aermet100, an ultra high strength steel alloy. The alloy has iron, cobalt and nickel as additives. The drag arm is grade 5 titanium as is the main shock absorber. The arms converge just above the wheels and radiate out into the bay. The twin main gear of the aircraft converge into the bay with the wheels laterally radiating out. The bay has two hydraulic reservoirs for redundancy, one on each side and an emergency DC pump as a backup. The XB-1 has no RAT, the DC pump is the back up. The landing gear bays are absolutely packed with different systems and include a generator control unit in there as well. All extremely well laid out. This gear was the second iteration.

Under each wing is an engine inlet (the third is on top of the fuselage with an S shaped duct to the third engine). The inlets look relatively small for a supersonic aircraft, what strikes you is the careful contouring of the inlet to slow supersonic air down to subsonic speeds for the engine compressors to work optimally. The front profile of the engine inlet is rectangular in 2D. The upper lip of the inlet starts about two feet in front of the lower lip. The sideview of the engine inlet shows a line running from the upper lip and converging with the vertical line running up from the lower lip at about 80% of the height of the inlet (there are no specs in the public domain).The inlet has no moving parts and the air is slowed by the inlet shockwave off the upper lip. The third engine of the trijet has a similar looking inlet, only thing is the geometry appears to run in reverse to the under wing inlets.The engine inlet geometry took about a year and half to finalize and hugely enhanced the engineering team’s capabilities.

The inlet architecture clearly visible and the main gear. Pic source: Boom site

A subtle design feature on the XB-1 is the gap between the underwing engine inlets and the wing. This gap is a boundary layer diverter to ensure the air the engines operate in clear air free of any turbulent vortices off the aircraft. While the diverters under the wings are thinner when compared to the center engine diverter on top of the fuselage as the boundary layer there is much thicker. The boundary layer itself is the layer of air that clings to the aircraft and is pulled with it. It is generally much thinner at the nose of the aircraft than the rear. In fact the boundary layer to the rear of the aircraft is so thick, the fasteners on the titanium engine bay covers do not need to be recessed and they actually protrude a bit with no additional drag.

The rudder on the vertical tail which is around six feet tall looks small but actually has about 20% higher authority than predicted by CFD. The all moving horizontal stabilizer (necessary for supersonic flight) is pivoted on a titanium torque tube that runs through the fuselage and connects to the stabilizer on the other side.This ensures the two horizontal stabilizers always move in unison. The horizontal stabilizer itself is positioned below the wings on the horizontal plane to avoid being blanketed by wing vortices.

The XB-1 has five fuel tanks running longitudinally down the length of the aircraft. The onboard flight control computer controls the centre of gravity by pumping fuel forwards or backwards depending on the acceleration or deceleration regime.

The Assembly

Industry 4.0 has revolutionized manufacturing by integrating digital technologies for efficient design, simulation and production. An example of this is computational fluid dynamics (CFD) where engineers ran thousands of simulations to optimize the aerodynamics of the XB-1 at a fraction of the time and cost. Traditionally the designs were validated in physical wind tunnel testing and reiterated upon, but now computers and artificial intelligence run the process end to end. It needs to be acknowledged that modern computing power and software have enabled Industry 4.0. 

Virtual prototyping has ensured a digital replica of the actual physical XB-1 is available at the touch of a keyboard. Generative design has ensured that algorithms can create complex component designs beyond human capability. End to end digitization is a digital information thread maintained from initial design to current status.

Boom has excelled by compartmentalizing the entire end-to-end creation of XB-1 by optimizing each component through the most suitable design and manufacturing process, and then bringing them together in perfect synergy across the whole aircraft.

A quick glance at the XB-1 immediately tells you the aircraft essentially has two colors. Most of the aircraft is white and towards the rear of the aircraft the engine bays are metal. All the white on the XB-1 is carbon composite and most of the metal on the aircraft is titanium.

The two dominant colors of the Boom XB-1. Pic Source : Boom Website

Boom has designed and constructed the composite parts of the XB-1 inhouse at a facility close to Denver, Colorado. The carbon fibre composites are used for most of the fuselage, wings and tail empennage. The material is lightweight, has very high tensile & flexural strength in addition to high impact resistance & a high strength to weight ratio. The heat resistance is very good. Additionally composites are easier to work with when creating complex aerodynamic shapes as compared to traditional materials such as aluminium.

Boom partnered with TenCate Advanced Composites (now Toray Group) to supply high temperature epoxy resins & prepregs for hot sections such as leading edges (temps as high as 307°F/153°C) and nose. Incidentally these are the same materials used on the Space X Falcon 9. Wing spar load testing was done in 2017.

For the Carbon composite Boom used the hand layup process where engineers manually layered carbon fibre prepreg sheets (pre-impregnated with TenCate’s epoxy resin) into molds to form the fuselage halves in addition to other components such as the wings. The sheet fibers are layered at 0°,45° & 90°, such layering gives the final product the longitudinal, shear / torsional & transverse strength we spoke of earlier. The process began in 2019, the fuselage halves were joined together in 2020. 

Post the layering the layered sheets with their molds, Boom used both autoclave & out of autoclave (OoA) curing using an inhouse oven for the curing of parts. The difference between an autoclave and an oven is the autoclave cures the composite sheets under heat & pressure while the oven heats the composites & their molds in a vacuum. 

During the post processing, the cured parts are checked for fit, surface quality & performance. Excess material is trimmed out and subjected to non destructive testing such as ultrasonic scans or tap tests to detect voids or delamination. Finishing involves surface preparation with primers and cleaners specific to the composite materials, followed by painting. The XB-1 was painted in high gloss white PPG Aerospace CA 9800 paint and added roughly 125 pounds to the aircraft while staying within the centre of gravity limits. The choice of white paint was prioritized by thermal management. The titanium sections were unpainted.

The titanium parts of the XB-1 are at critical high-temperature or high-strength areas of the aircraft . The XB-1 had a total of 21 titanium parts including engine bay covers, exhaust components and structural elements such as parts of the landing gear. Titanium has a high melting point and thermal stability which makes it ideal for such sections.

Boom partnered with VELO3D to produce the titanium parts using additive manufacturing (3D printing). VELO3D used their Sapphire 3D printing system which uses laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). In this process a laser fuses titanium powder (probably Ti-6Al-4V a.k.a titanium-aluminium-vanadium) layer upon layer on a digital CAD model. This method allows for complex geometries & reduced material waste for rapid prototyping which is ideal for XB-1s small batch, high precision needs. The precision & complexity enabled by the process is far superior to traditional processes such as using CNC machines. VELO3D’s expertise helped accelerate XB-1’s production timeline.

The post processing of the 3D printed titanium parts involved heat treating to enhance mechanical properties, surface finishing to remove any surface irregularities & non destructive testing using X-rays and ultrasonic testing. The finished titanium parts were integrated with the carbon composite fuselage.

The use of 3D titanium parts validated additive manufacturing processes for the Overture. In fact the XB-1 has a total of 193 parts on it that are 3D printed!

Most of the avionics used on the aircraft are standard off the shelf and a few that have been created specifically for the XB-1. The XB-1 sits midway between a fly by wire & a manual system. The reason for this is Boom needed the reliability and simplicity of a manual system for the experimental XB-1 at the same time they wanted to develop engineering expertise for a digital flight control system. The Overture will be a fly by wire aircraft. The engines on the XB-1 are General Electric J-85s with afterburners that produce approximately 4100 pounds of thrust each. The engines themselves date back to the 1950s. The XB-1 was rolled out in 2020, it was only much later (2022) that Boom decided to make its own Symphony engines which were unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow.

The Overture

As of Jun’24 the Boom Superfactory was completed in North Carolina and currently the Superfactory is being tooled up. The factory will eventually produce 66 aircraft per year. 

Boom is currently prototyping its Symphony engine sprint core using surprise surprise 3D printing! Boom Symphony expects to produce thrust early 2026.

The Overture prototype should be ready by 2029.

The XB-1 ‘ The Little Plane that Could’….. 

The Overture. Note the similarity in wing design to the XB-1. The aircraft underwent a change in design in 2022. Pic Source. Boom website
The original mockup of the XB-1; Pic Source: Wings over Rockies

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The Overture Alliance

April 25, 2025 //
0

The Past & The Present

Global GDP in 2003, the year Concorde retired was $38 Trillion. In 2024 the same was $105 Trillion. The total number of air passengers in 2003 was 1.7 billion and the same in 2024 was 9.5 billion. In 2003 routes over 10 hours were unheard of, Singapore Airlines launched its non stop to Los Angeles from Singapore in 2003. Today such routes are taken for granted.

The numbers above suggest the nature of air travel has changed over the last 22 years. More people are traveling longer, more frequently and more people have more money to spend on air travel.

The air travel landscape that Overture will inherit is very different from the one Concorde left behind.

The Alliance

The single biggest advantage of an alliance is synergy. Synergy across Network. Synergy across operations and synergy across product (fares, lounges, loyalty programs and much more). More on this later.

Globally there are three airline alliances The Star Alliance, Oneworld & SkyTeam..

The alliances have directly been responsible for stimulating air travel by offering seamless travel over longer distances to more people than ever before.

Range

Over the last 22 years ultra long haul aircraft have taken over several premier fleets of the World. These aircraft have reset travelers’ expectations to ‘ direct nonstop flights’.

During supersonic flight the rate of fuel burn is three times that of subsonic flight and the Overture’s range of 4250 nm (nautical miles) looks puny compared to the range of Over 9000 nm for most modern ultra long haul aircraft.

What the Overture might lack in range, it makes up in speed. 

Passenger expectations however do not change, the speed becomes an added layer to the expectation.

Enter the Overture Alliance.

Concorde Pool History 

Concorde production ceased in 1979 and a total of 14 were built, seven each for British Airways and Air France.

Both airlines entered into a parts pool program to keep costs down.

The pool program was responsible for keeping the aircraft flying until 2003, as parts became scarce in later years.

The Concorde alliance was localized as it involved two airlines belonging to neighboring countries in Europe.

The Overture will birth into a truly Global World and we can expect airlines from around the World to feature on the Overture probables list.

Overture Probables 

The Overture currently has three confirmed airlines .The first two are American players, they are United and American Airlines. The third is Japanese, and it is Japan Airlines.

Who might the other probables be?

A tentative list might like this:

The Concorde operators:

British Airways – Low

Over the last twenty years British Airways has gone down the route of fleet optimization and post Concorde have turned away from SST. But you never know.

It bears mentioning that Qatar Airways (also on the probable list) owns 25% of IAG (International Airline Group) the parent company of British Airways and other airlines such as Iberia, Aer Lingus,LEVEL and Vueling

British Airways traditionally ran the New York and Barbados routes from London and both routes are well within the reach of the Overture. In addition to most of Continental North America.

The Overture Reach from London.
Range in Nautical Miles from London Heathrow.

Air France – Moderate

Of the two Concorde operators Air France might be higher on the probable list. They have embarked on a fleet renewal strategy and the Overture might make sense as AIr France  looks to differentiate itself on the European Business and Leisure market. In fact AF 4590 (the Concorde crash of 2000 at Paris) was a charter carrying passengers (most of them German) to New York, where they were to  join a Cruise to Ecuador.

The Overture reach from Paris is similar to that from London.

Overture reach from Paris CDG.
Range in nautical miles from Paris CDG.

The Concorde Marketer: 

Singapore Airlines – Moderate 

Between 1977 & 1980 Singapore Airlines entered into a partnership with British Airways to fly the SIN – BAH – LHR v v route. The aircraft was painted with both liveries one on each side and each airline was responsible for selling their own side. The partnership had several issues and died a natural death in 1980.

This partnership did highlight Singapore Airlines’ Supersonic aspirations and Overture presents exactly this.

The Overture range allows Singapore to have non stop routes across Australia, China and their traditional stronghold Japan, Korea and gives them non stop reach into the Middle East and slightly beyond into Eurasia.

Overture reach from Singapore Changi.
Range in nautical miles from Singapore.

The Wisher

Virgin Atlantic – High 

Richard Branson the founder of Virgin Atlantic is a longtime admirer of Concorde. In 1996 he made a highly publicized attempt to lease Concordes from British Airways. His argument being the British Government had subsided the development of Concorde and British Airways should not have monopoly on it.

In 2003 as Concorde’s retirement was announced, Branson once again offered to lease / buy them and first offered one pound per aircraft going as high as five million pounds per aircraft. He even had Concorde models produced in Virgin livery and distributed globally.

In 2016 Virgin entered into an agreement with BOOM for the purchase of 10 Overture aircraft, however this agreement has since expired and Branson turned his attention to Virgin Galactic, sending tourists to space.

The probability of Virgin coming back remains high even though nothing has been announced.

The Virgin Atlantic range footprint for the Overture is the same as British Airways.

The ME3

Qatar Airways – High

Qatar Airway’s has been at Commercial Aviation’s forefront for the last twenty years. They have a diverse fleet that represents agility. Overture is a fresh ingredient to the Qatar Airways mix. Qatar has consistently presented itself as a high end destination and the Overture adds to this aura.

The Overture range gives Qatar Airways reach across Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and Asia.

Overture network from Doha NDIA.
Range in nautical miles from Doha NDIA.

Emirates – Moderate 

Ever since the late 90s when Emirates began it’s meteoric growth to its current overwhelming scale. Emirates represents all that Dubai stands for and more. Dubai stands for the power of innovation as does Emirates, which has been very careful with its fleet choices. For an airline with over 250 aircraft (all long haul, widebodies) they have only two aircraft types, the A380 & B777 and only recently added a third type, the A350. However Emirates will always be a tempting choice.

The Overture range gives Emirates a similar footprint out of Dubai  to that of Qatar Airways out of Doha.

Etihad- Low

Etihad made several poor choices with mergers and acquisitions (Jet Airways, Alitalia, Air Berlin)and most have gone bad. However they are on a path to recovery.  They only turned profitable in 2024 and appear wiser for the experience. Overture is still 5 years away and you never know if a fresh spark might be ignited.

India & China

The fastest growing aviation markets in the World. 

India has two dominant carriers Indigo and Air India. 

Indigo – Low

Indigo is a LCC. They are growing at a phenomenal rate and Indigo is  among the most valuable airlines in the World. They have begun offering a Hybrid product that includes a Stretch class.

Air India – Moderate 

Air India is in the midst of a major turnaround after being taken over by the Tata group in 2022. Over fifty years of mismanagement have ensured that Tata is rebuilding an airline from scratch. 

Singapore Airlines holds a 25.1% stake in Air India and shares a very close relationship with the Tatas. In the 1990s they tried to start an airline in India with the Tatas but ran into government related road blocks. When Singapore Airlines’ predecessor MSA (Malaysia Singapore Airlines) was formed in 1966, Air India which was founded and run by Tatas since 1932 trained the early batches of MSA’s crew. 

Air India was nationalized in 1953 and stayed that way until 2022 when it reverted back to Tatas, who are turning the airline around with key stakeholder Singapore Airlines.

If Singapore Airlines has a go at the Overture Air India will probably be involved creating a tight double hub with a reach from Australia to Europe & Africa.

The reach of the double hub over Singapore & Mumbai.
Range by city pair in nautical miles.

China 

China has the second largest GDP Globally at over $20 Trillion. They are one of the two fastest growing aviation markets in the World.

The current economic situation between China and the USA renders any conversation about the Overture moot.  China has begun returning Boeing aeroplanes to the USA.

China is a very strong Supersonic market. Their premier airframe manufacturer COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China) has expressed long term interest in SST and even has some concepts.

For now China will not be figuring in Overtures plans.

Bridging the Pacific 

The Overture enters an increasingly globalized market. Currently a high percentage of Global economic power houses are in East, South & Southeast Asia.

With it’s range of 4,250 nm bridging the Pacific becomes a challenge where distances are double the range of the Overture.

Two points present themselves. The first is Honolulu in Hawaii and the second is Anchorage in Alaska.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Honolulu 

The approximate mid point of the Pacific Ocean. Honolulu has a history of being a logistical stopover and later tourist draw.

In the 1930s as Panam’s Clipper flying boats began to spread out across the World. Panam used Hawaii as a major refueling point as their flying boats bridged the Pacific.

Traffic to Hawaii kept increasing as planes got faster, and the tourism industry there exploded. Today Hawaii is considered a major tourist destination.

Honolulu has the ability to connect the US West coast to Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea on the Overture.

The network reach over Honolulu Hawaii.
Range in Nautical miles over Honolulu.

Anchorage 

Anchorage emerged as a critical bridge on the East West Pacific route in the pre ETOPS ( Extended Range Twin Operations, applicable to aircraft with two engines) era. Right through the 1970s and 80s airlines used Anchorage as a critical technical refueling stop as they bridged the Pacific.

The arrival of aircraft such as the B777, B787 & A350 and ETOPS changed technical stops with their disruptive range efficiencies.

Since the 1990s Anchorage has exploded into a critical cargo hub, used by almost every major freight operator.

The Overture represents a return to Anchorage for passenger operations technical refueling stops. A stop in Anchorage opens up Continental North America from Tokyo or Seoul.

Note: The Concorde underwent extensive cold weather testing while based at Fairbanks through the early 1970s ending in 1974. Alaska is familiar was Supersonic Transports.

An Air France Concorde at Fairbanks Alaska in 1974.
Reach into Continental North America over Anchorage.
Range into North America over Anchorage.

The Overture Alliance

So what will the Overture Alliance look like?

Before we dive into the future, let’s examine two alliances that pre date todays mega alliances. These two stand out for their depth and synergy.

  • The KLM / Northwest Alliance from 1989
  • The British Airways / Qantas from 1995

The KLM / Northwest Alliance 

This particular alliance started off the JV (Joint Venture) model in aviation. The two carriers found synergy across Schedules,  revenue sharing (they pioneered the straight rate prorate model, a concept where airlines share revenue based at pre determined rates by route), frequent flyer programs and delivered a seamless passenger experience. 

The synergies created by a strong double hub strategy on both sides of the Atlantic which would become the template for alliances moving ahead.

The KL/NW alliance would set the ground for the SkyTeam alliance.

The British Airways / Qantas Kangaroo Route

The JSA (Joint Services Agreement) on the Kangaroo Route was to create synergy across a midpoint hub at Singapore.

The JSA involved revenue sharing across flights, coordinated schedules, synergized pricing and shared costs ( Singapore as a hub was not a home base for either British Airways or Qantas). They went as far as aligning product across cabins.

What sets the JSA apart was coordinated crew layovers, aircraft maintenance and provisions stock at Singapore.

The JSA between BA/QF would become the basis for Oneworld.

The two examples highlight the synergies achieved across Men, Machines & Money. 

The Morphing of Alliances 

The JSA changed with the emergence of Emirates and Qantas realized in 2013 they had superior reach into Europe / UK / Africa / India and the Middle East by using Emirates based in Dubai than using the JSA over Singapore.

On a more recent note (2022) within the OneWorld alliance, British Airways which represented the AJB (Atlantic Joint Business) with American Airlines to Asia and Africa was replaced by Qatar Airways as the AJB partner to Asia and most of Africa.

The above examples highlight the emerging importance of the ME3 and more importantly future alliances need to be extremely flexible and agile to deal with ever changing Global dynamics.

With this knowledge how will the Overture Alliance look?

The Overture Alliance with definitely synergize Men , Machines & Money.

Men

  • Dedicated Overture teams at each hub
  • Each Overture airline responsible for their hub
  • Costs at Honolulu & Anchorage to be shared
  • Overture lounges at transit points 
  • Common training facilities at dedicated hubs

Machines

  • For the most part airlines run the Overture as a p2p (point to point) operation 
  • Honolulu & Anchorage provide a transit/transfer hub as necessary (there may be other hubs)
  • A common pool program at Anchorage & Honolulu. Each airline responsible for parts at their hub 
  • Honolulu to Australia / New Zealand will be a side trip ( or a subsonic journey elsewhere)
  • Booking and back end systems to be aligned

Money

  • Deep synergy across revenue sharing 
  • Hub costs each airline is responsible 
  • Costs at Honolulu & Anchorage to be shared (as per use by airline)
  • Marketing expenditure can be shared across constituents 

Notes:

  • By doing so airlines avoid the pitfall of spreading themselves too thin, and allows them to focus on key routes, much like the concept of the LCC (Low Cost Carriers). Such an operation opens up LCCs buying into this.
  • The Overture Alliance once again heralds the return of RTW ( Round The World) journeys like the previous century.
  • As observed in previous alliances, the constituents and business needs are constantly changing and scalability has to be built into the alliance model.
  • Since the aircraft is the BOOM Overture, BOOM will need to be a critical part of this alliance from a Machine perspective.

I have probably missed many perspectives and airlines during the course of writing this and I apologize to those I missed.

Disclaimer: This article has used images from multiple sources accessed through Google.

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