Chief Concorde pilot flies next-gen supersonic aircraft

Boom Supersonic is on track to build a next-gen supersonic aircraft called the Overture, which everyone is calling the Concorde successor — and a chief Concorde pilot for British Airways got to try his hands at flying the new futuristic plane in a simulation.

Boom wanted to show off the state-of-the-art tech they put inside the Overture’s cockpit, and who could be a better person to test it out than Mike Bannister?

For context, Bannister has clocked the most hours flying a Concorde compared to any other pilot in history.

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Chief Concorde pilot flies the Overture

The aviation company recently shared the progress of the Overture’s development at the Farnborough Airshow last week.

Several interesting things were revealed there, like the fact that a second aircraft, the Boom XB-1, is currently under testing and has only one purpose — helping build the Overture.

In the same series of tests, the XB-1 aircraft will attempt to break the sound barrier again as early as this year.

Although that’s a crucial step, there was also one more thing.

Boom showcased the next-gen flight deck design that the Overture will eventually have.

These decks needed to be better than the endless analogue controls and different gauges inside the Concorde, so Boom went all-in by adding several massive screens.

Concorde has a controversial past, and its tech is quite old now by modern standards.

The next-gen supersonic aircraft is a worthy successor

Mike Bannister had the most experience with flying a Concorde, so he laid out all the differences in a video shared by Boom.

He mentioned that these screens aren’t just for show — they have all the necessary stuff in one place and are quite intuitive.

Without going into the technicalities, his point was that the Overture is a worthy successor, and its cockpit is excellent.

“I’ve long believed that Overture is the rightful successor to Concorde. After experiencing Overture’s flight deck, which is incredibly well designed and delightful to fly, my excitement and enthusiasm for this aircraft has only intensified,” Bannister said.

If this Concorde successor got a chief pilot’s approval, then this whole idea of getting supersonic flights again seems more promising than it did before.

The old aircraft retired in 2003, and the world hasn’t seen any commercial supersonic aircraft since then.

If you’re an aviation enthusiast, you would know what this means for the industry and the overall convenience for passengers.

The Overture is set to roll out before 2030, which is certainly a long wait.

To see if it becomes a reality and breaks records, we’ll just have to sit back and watch.