MOJAVE, C.A. — The American company working to build the world’s fastest airliner hit a major milestone this week with its first supersonic flight.
Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 aircraft broke the sound barrier for its first time Tuesday with a test flight in Mojave California.
The Associated Press reports it was the same Mojave Desert airspace where Charles “Chuck” Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier in 1947.
It’s also the first time an independently developed jet has broken the sound barrier.
The XB-1 has now completed 12 successful test flights since it first took to the air in March 2024. The plane already has 130 orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines.
Boom, based in Denver, plans to use the technology to build its Overture commercial airliner, which the company tells The AP could carry as many as 80 passengers while traveling faster than the speed of sound.
The jets would be built in North Carolina. Channel 9 first reported on that in 2022, when the company announced Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTI) in Greensboro would be the home for its first full-scale manufacturing plant.
PTI officials congratulated Boom on the supersonic flight Wednesday, WTVD in Raleigh reports.
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