Boom Technology
Boom Technology, Inc. is an American company developing the Overture, a supersonic airliner. It has also flight tested a one-third-scale demonstrator, the Boom XB-1, which broke the sound barrier for the first time on January 28, 2025, during a flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port.
History
The company was founded in Denver in 2014.It participated in a Y Combinator startup incubation program in early 2016, and has been funded by Y Combinator, Sam Altman, Paul Graham, Alex Gerko, Michael Moritz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Seraph Group, and others.
In March 2017, $33 million was invested by several venture funds: Continuity Fund, RRE Ventures, Palm Drive Ventures, 8VC and Caffeinated Capital.
Boom secured $43 million of total financing by April 2017.
In 2017, Japan Airlines invested $10 million, as part of a Series B fundraising round that brought the company capital to $156 million by 2020: enough to build the XB-1 demonstrator and complete its testing, and to start early design work on the 60-80-seat airliner. As of 2025, the company has raised over $600 million in investor funding.
In January 2022, the company announced plans to build a manufacturing facility on a site at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. Construction on the facility, named the Overture Superfactory, was completed in June 2024.
In November 2023, a representative of the NEOM Investment Fund announced their investment in Boom at an undisclosed amount. This follows an announcement by Boom of a "strategic investment" in the company from the fund.
If completed, the 60- to 80-seat aircraft, Overture, would be the first supersonic passenger jet since the British-French Concorde which was retired in 2003.
Projects
XB-1 demonstrator
The Boom XB-1 is a one-third-scale supersonic demonstrator, designed to fly up to Mach 1.3, and powered by three General Electric J85-15 engines with a total of of thrust. It was rolled out in October 2020. It was expected to be flight tested in 2022, but delays pushed the first flight test to March 22, 2024.During the first test flight, the aircraft reached speeds of up to and achieved an altitude of over.
In the ninth test flight on 13 December 2024, the aircraft reached speeds of up to Mach 0.87 or and achieved an altitude of over.
During the twelfth test flight on 28 January 2025, the aircraft broke the sound barrier three times, reaching speeds up to Mach 1.122, or approximately and achieved an altitude of over. The aircraft became the first privately funded aircraft to break the sound barrier, reaching a speed of Mach 1.122. The company said XB-1 achieved supersonic flight without generating an audible sonic boom that reached the ground after refining its sonic boom models and improving algorithms for predicting Mach cutoff conditions. XB-1’s final flight on 10 February 2025 consisted of three more supersonic runs, reaching a top speed of Mach 1.18, or and an altitude of over . During this flight, Boom partnered with NASA to capture a Schlieren image showing the shock waves resulting from XB-1 pushing through the air at supersonic speeds.
Overture airliner
The Boom Overture is a proposed supersonic transport designed to achieve an airspeed of, accommodate 60 to 80 passengers and a planned range of.Boom said there could be a market for over 1,000 supersonic airliners, and suggests airlines could charge business or first class fares. It decided to use the delta wing configuration of Concorde and make use of composite materials. It is to be powered by four medium bypass turbofan engines.
In January 2021, Boom announced plans to begin Overture test flights in 2027 and Boom CEO Blake Scholl "estimates that flights on Overture will be available in 2030."
United Airlines announced in June 2021 that it had signed a deal to purchase 15 Boom Overture aircraft, with an option to buy 35 more. American Airlines announced in August 2022 it had agreed to purchase 20 Boom Overture aircraft. Boom’s orders and pre-orders total 130 aircraft from airlines including United Airlines, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines.