Boom, Rolls-Royce Partner On Supersonic Overture

Boom Supersonic announced on Thursday that it has entered into an agreement with Rolls-Royce to explore using a Rolls-Royce propulsion system for Boom’s Overture supersonic commercial passenger aircraft. Teams from the companies will be collaborating on engine-airframe matching activities including investigating whether an existing engine system can be adapted for supersonic flight. The base price for the Overture is expected to come in at around $200 million.

“We’ve had a series of valuable collaborations and co-locations with Rolls-Royce over the past years to lay the groundwork for this next phase of development,” said Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl. “We look forward to building on the progress and rapport that we’ve already built with our collaboration as we work to refine Overture’s design and bring sustainable supersonic transport to passenger travel.”

As previously reported by AVweb, Boom plans to roll out its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft on Oct. 7, 2020. The company intends to use XB-1 to demonstrate key technologies for Overture. The XB-1 test program is scheduled to begin later this year with plans to fly the aircraft for the first time in 2021.