Another day, another story about a supersonic airplane that can fly faster than any that has gone before it – except this time they’re not yanking your chain.
The supersonic commercial passenger jet has been dubbed Boom, with the team behind its design targeting a top speed of Mach 2.2. That edges out the Concorde by just .2, and designers aim to offer ‘a passenger price point similar to current business class airline tickets’.
We will have something of a wait in store though, with a first commercial flight targeted for the end of 2017. More below from Flying Mag:
The team is led by Blake Scholl, a tech whiz who developed marketing automation for Amazon and started Kima Labs, a mobile technology company that was bought by Groupon. A private pilot, Scholl founded Boom along with software engineer and entrepreneur Josh Krall and Joe Wilding, who was the chief engineer of the Adam A700 jet and has been involved in the development of several other airplanes.
The three co-founders have amassed a team of professionals with previous work experience at companies such as Pratt & Whitney, Gulfstream, Boeing, NASA, Scaled Composites and Icon.
…Virgin is also involved in the project, having signed up for options for 10 Boom aircraft for Virgin Atlantic and offering help with the development and testing through Virgin Galactic. Fortune also reported that another unnamed airline has signed a letter of intent for 15 aircraft, bringing the total backlog to a booming $5 billion.
See what they did there – booming, Boom? The Concorde itself has a storied history, first taking to the air back in 1969. Some old school pics to help that trip down memory lane:
Just look how happy Sting is on board:
If you were looking for proof that twats fly on Concordes too look no further:
My guess is we’ll see the celebs hopping on board that Boom in no time. They can’t be seen flying those outdated old Concordes now can they?
[source:flyingmag]
[imagesources:dailymail&wikipedia&concordesst]
