New supersonic aircraft by "Boom"

[lucas]

I read this article today (but I don't know if it's reliable).

It says that American company "Boom" will make a new supersonic aircraft that can reach mach 2,2 and will count 55 seats. The first commercial flights have to be made in 2023, with the first test flight next year by the "Baby-Booom" XB-1, a smaller version of the plane.
The price for one plane is approximately a 179 million euros. Yet 76 aircrafts have been ordered, including some to Virgin Atlantic.

link: http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/2/Reizen/artic ... Boom.dhtml (in dutch)

[sn26567]

Is "Boom" an appropriate name for an airline or an aircraft?

[lucas]

Is "Boom" an appropriate name for an airline or an aircraft?

It's the name of the company who will make it.

[jan_olieslagers]

hln does not have a strong reputation for reliability afaik. They claim Virgin Atlantic ordered the plane but I'd like to see that confirmed. It would be exceptional to see firm orders for a plane that's not even on the drawing board. Also the timing begs some believing, first flight by not even the exact same type next year? Commercial operation of "the real thing" only five years later?

Plus the more general concerns: Concorde failed not for nothing, and none of its issues have been solved today. High fuel burn, claustrophobic feel on pax, local operation ban due to high noise levels, ...

ps "aircrafts" is a non-existent word in English. The plural of "aircraft" is "aircraft".

[RoMax]

hln does not have a strong reputation for reliability afaik. They claim Virgin Atlantic ordered the plane but I'd like to see that confirmed. It would be exceptional to see firm orders for a plane that's not even on the drawing board. Also the timing begs some believing, first flight by not even the exact same type next year? Commercial operation of "the real thing" only five years later?

HLN has a weak reputation indeed, but there is some truth in the whole thing.
The aircraft is very much on the drawing board and manufacturing of the main structural parts of the small prototype is already underway with assembly starting later this year. Market introduction of the big version in 2023 seems ambitious...but that's what they claim for the moment...
I don't know if there are any firmed orders, I doubt it, but in 2016 Richard Branson already said that Virgin Atlantic has options for 10 of the aircraft (FYI Virgin Galactic is involved in the development of the aircraft). The other 4 don't want to get disclosed yet, but if we have to believe Boom itself, they are putting serious money behind it.

There are (former) people behind it from major aerospace companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Pratt & Whitney, SpaceX, Amazon, etc.

A major concern for the company is the cost of development, but they raised enough money so far to at least start flight testing with the small version.

[lucas]

hln does not have a strong reputation for reliability afaik.

They say a lot about it on their website: https://boomsupersonic.com/

It would be exceptional to see firm orders for a plane that's not even on the drawing board.

The plane has yet passed the drawing bord. It's yet in production. You can find pictures of that on their website

Also the timing begs some believing, first flight by not even the exact same type next year? Commercial operation of "the real thing" only five years later?

The scale plane made yet more than a thousand (!) simulated wind tunnel tests. They will feature three major aerodynamic advances from the Concorde: an area-ruled fuselage, a chine, and a refined delta wing.
The XB-1 is under construction in Centennial aiport, near Denver

about the engines:
The XB-1 is powered by three General Electric J95-21 turbojet engines. The fuel system stores 7,000 pounds of fuel in 11 separate taks.

[Ozzie1969]

This will fly as soon as Rekkof has lifted off.

[quixoticguide]

I'm very pessimistic about his!

[Bralo20]

This will fly as soon as Rekkof has lifted off.

I don't know, they have solid funding and they are manufacturing the demonstrator.

I think the chances that this plane flying are significantly higher than Rekkof ever lifting of. Does Rekkof still exist anyway?