In 2003, the Concorde made its last flight, and since then passengers have been transported at a speed less than sound. But Scholl plans to revive bullet travel. His startup Boom Technology already has several orders from airlines for the Overture supersonic airliner. This month, another client, one of the world’s largest air carriers, United Airlines, signed a memorandum on the purchase of 15 aircraft and an option to purchase another 35 aircraft. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
The Scholl plane will fly at a speed of Mach 1.7 (more than 550 m / s, or more than 2000 km / h; the Mach number is a unit that means the real speed in the flow of matter, in particular in the air). That is, the journey from San Francisco to Tokyo will take not more than 10 hours, but about six, and from the United Airlines hub in New Jersey to London – 3.5 hours instead of more than six. “This means you can leave in the morning, arrange an afternoon or dinner meeting in London, and then get back on an evening flight and arrive in New York in time to put the kids to bed the same day,” Scholl promises in an interview. the Pioneer website.
From a height of 18 km, passengers will be able to see the curvature of the earth’s surface and the blue of the endless sky. There will be 65 to 88 seats on the plane (depending on how close the airline places the seats). The Overture body is very narrow, because of this, there is one armchair in each row at each window and the passage between them. There are no luggage racks to make the cabin more spacious. Suitcases can be stored in a compartment under the seat. What else is missing – the back of the chair reclining to the state of a flat bed. You don’t need it to fly across the Atlantic – you’ll sleep in the world’s best bed in your home, Scholl jokes.
Tricks like that done in 1985 by musician Phil Collins will be possible again. He played Live Aid in the UK, sat on the Concorde and played a show in America the same day. In principle, it will be possible to arrive in the United States a day earlier than took off from Europe.
In October 2020, Boom pulled out of the hangar a finished smaller prototype of the liner called the XB-1, designed for two people. Now it is undergoing ground tests, and at the end of this – early next year, it should take off. In 2022, the plant is to be laid (it is not yet known where exactly). The full-size Overture will be ready to take off in 2025, Scholl told Pioneer magazine: “It usually takes a jet plane about two years of flight testing to get certified.
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