This new supersonic plane could get you to your destination in half the time

Overture, the new supersonic plane from American aerospace company Boom, is designed to get travellers to global destinations twice as fast.

Long-haul flights are, let’s be honest, a test of patience. But what if you could cut that flying time in half? Well, the good news is the possibility of this might not be as farfetched as you think, thanks to a groundbreaking new plane designed to get travellers to global destinations faster than ever before.

The sleek aircraft will reach a cruising altitude of 60,000 feet. (Image: Boom)

American company Boom is in the midst of producing “The world’s fastest airliner, optimised for speed, safety, and sustainability”. Boom’s supersonic commercial airliner Overture will be the first civil supersonic jet made in America that breaks the sound barrier. “Our ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone,” said founder and CEO Blake Scholl.

The company claims it will get passengers to global destinations two times faster than standard commercial flights (note that speed can vary by specific routes and other factors). The planes will travel at around 1.7 Mach (approximately 2,085 kilometres per hour) at a cruising altitude of 60,000 feet, which would mean travellers could get from Melbourne to Los Angeles in 8.5 hours and Brisbane to Shanghai in five hours.

Seats are likely to be more spacious compared to typical economy class. (Image: Boom)

On January 28th, Boom broke the sound barrier for the first time with a test flight of its XB-1 plane in Mojave, California. This model has completed 12 successful test flights since its maiden voyage in March last year and serves as a precursor to the development of Overture. So, how fast did it go? Approximately 12 minutes into the test flight Boom’s chief test pilot Tristan ‘Geppetto’ Brandenburg accelerated to Mach 1.122—roughly 12% faster than the speed of sound. 

Boom claims state-of-the-art displays will eliminate the hundreds of breakers and buttons found in traditional cockpits.(Image: Boom)

130 orders have been made so far for Overture, including from United Airlines, American Airlines, and 
Japan Airlines. Planes will only carry 64-80 passengers, so we expect tickets to be pricey. From the renders, seats look sleek and significantly more spacious than your average economy seat.  

Would you jump on board?