Virgin Atlantic and Japan Airlines are going boom! Or rather they have expressed an interest in Boom, the US aerospace company that is hoping to build a “baby" Concorde.
The US company promises that supersonic flight for commercial passengers is going to be coming back, following a major investment from Japan Airlines.
Boom Technology has agreed to a special partnership with Japan Airlines, who are investing $10m that's around £7.4 million into the company and the airline is ordering 20 of the faster-than-the-speed-of-sound aeroplanes. Blake Scholl, the founder of Boom, said the agreement was a “historic” milestone for the company and for supersonic passenger flight.
Boom believes it can make the economics of supersonic flight work by using new technology and designs and utilising JAL's experience. “JAL is the first airline in history to make a material financial commitment to a faster future,” Mr Scholl said. “Concorde had dozens of pre-orders — but none carried any financial commitment, and ultimately British Airways and Air France got their Concordes for just £1 apiece.”
Mr Scholl told media: “Decades ago, Concorde delivered a headline feature: speed. JAL is helping Boom deliver something further: a mainstream supersonic airliner, which is practical, reliable, and economic. Their decades of experience as a world-class operator, expertise in everything from passenger experience, to safety, to technical operations will help us build an airliner not just with marquee speed, but also with the practicality required to truly change the way millions travel.”
A prototype of Boom's jet will, they tell us, be flying during the latter part of next year and will be its aircraft flying next year. The aircraft called Baby Boom will fly at Mach 1.9 which is approximately 1,300 miles per hour and at an altitude of 40,000ft. It will carry up to 55 passengers in a premium style cabin. However, a configuration of fewer seats would enable the aircraft of attain a higher cruising speed, possibly as fast as 1,700mph.
Boom claims to have about 70 offers of orders from a number of undisclosed airlines although one of the other airlines is known to be Virgin Atlantic, which has an option for 10 jets, whilst Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic will help with the flight testing process.
Yoshiharu Ueki, JAL president, said: "Through this partnership, we hope to contribute to the future of supersonic travel with the intent of providing more time to our valued passengers."
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