Boom Supersonic CEO says they’ve cracked supersonic flight with ‘no audible sonic boom’
- Introducing ‘Boomless Cruise’
- Boom Supersonic claims it has ‘cracked’ supersonic flight
- It has ‘no audible sonic boom’
Published on Feb 10, 2025 at 9:19 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on Feb 11, 2025 at 6:27 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
The CEO of Boom Supersonic has an announcement to shout from the rooftops: the company has ‘cracked’ supersonic flight with ‘no audible sonic boom’.
The journeys will be up to 50 percent faster.
It was quietly demonstrated on XB-1’s first supersonic flight three times (pun intended).
Its name? ‘Boomless Cruise’.
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Groundbreaking supersonic flight from boom Supersonic
The announcement was made by CEO, Blake Scholl, who explained how it works.
“It’s actually well-known physics called Mach cutoff,” he said.
These physics were just theories before XB-1 proved it with ‘airliner-ready technology’.
Boom! We cracked it! Today we are introducing Boomless Cruise—supersonic flights up to 50% faster with no audible sonic boom.
— Blake Scholl 🛫 (@bscholl) February 10, 2025
We quietly (har har) demo'd this on XB-1's first supersonic flight—three times actually. 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/oe0VHJqNit
“When an aircraft breaks the sound barrier at a sufficiently high altitude, the boom refracts in the atmosphere and curls upward without reaching the ground.
“It makes a U-turn before anyone can hear it.”
The upward trajectory of the boom is all down to cold temperatures at altitude.
The sonic boom never reaches the ground
This atmospheric U-turn requires tech that wasn’t available in the era of supersonic Concorde.
It requires engines powerful enough to break the sound barrier at such a high altitude that the boom can make a U-turn.
Tech now allows us to predict boom propagation precisely.
Boomless Cruise relies on the Symphony engines of the Overture airliner and its ‘boomless’ mode that’s designed ‘with enhanced transonic performance’
The mode automatically selects the fastest quiet speed as it advises pilots on the fastest, most efficient altitude based on weather forecasts.
It will be able to hit a top speed of Mach 1.3 – but will usually sit between Mach 1.1 and Mach 1.2.
It’s not the same tech used by NASA and its ‘quiet’ X-59 – as the sonic boom will be completely absent.
As well as the 600+ routes that will benefit from Overture’s existing Mach 0.94/Mach 1.7 hybrid speed, Boomless Cruise is set to add many other practical routes.
These will fly from coast to coast in the US up to 90 minutes faster when permitted by American regulators.
All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
