{"id":58557,"date":"2025-01-29T21:33:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T20:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=58557"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:36:39","slug":"the-first-supersonic-flight-of-the-boom-xb-1-an-aircraft-that-could-revolutionize-civil-aviation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/01\/29\/the-first-supersonic-flight-of-the-boom-xb-1-an-aircraft-that-could-revolutionize-civil-aviation\/","title":{"rendered":"The first supersonic flight of the Boom XB-1, an aircraft that could revolutionize civil aviation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aviation experienced a time of great milestones in the first half of the 20th century, with very rapid advances in just a few years.<\/p>\n

The fascinating engineering and lesser-known details of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe three former WB-57 bombers that NASA uses to capture solar eclipses<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

The Wright brothers' first flight took place in 1903,<\/strong> and the First World War (1914-1918) saw the birth of fighter aircraft, which developed during the interwar period, taking a great leap forward in the Second World War (1939-1945) with the first jet aircraft, and breaking the sound barrier with the Bell X-1 in 1946.<\/p>\n

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The second half of the 20th century saw a new milestone: the first flights of two supersonic passenger aircraft<\/strong>, the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 (1968) and the Franco-British A\u00e9rospatiale-BAC Concorde (1969). However, the first ceased to operate in 1999 and the second in 2003. We have now gone two decades without supersonic commercial aircraft<\/strong>, a paradox in an era of great technological advances.<\/p>\n

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An American company, Boom Technology, aims to change that.<\/strong> In 2016, it began developing a new aircraft that would serve as a demonstrator for a new supersonic commercial airliner. The demonstrator is called the Boom XB-1 and made its first flight on March 22, 2024,<\/strong> bearing the US civil registration N990XB.<\/p>\n

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The XB-1 is a jet aircraft equipped with three General Electric CJ610-15 turbojets<\/strong>, with one of them located at the tail and the other two on the sides, slightly further forward. The aircraft measures 21 metres long and has a wingspan of 5.2 metres<\/strong>, its maximum take-off weight is 6,123 kg and it is piloted by a single person. Boom aims for this aircraft to reach a speed of Mach 2.2 (2716 km\/h).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The XB-1 made history on Tuesday, January 28, by becoming the first American-made supersonic civilian aircraft<\/strong>. The takeoff took place from the Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV) in California.<\/p>\n

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The man flying the plane was Tristan \"Geppetto\" Brandenburg,<\/strong> a former U.S. Navy naval aviator and Boom\u2019s chief test pilot. The aircraft reached speeds of Mach 1,122 (1,385 km\/h)<\/a>. On this flight, the XB-1 was accompanied by a Dassault Mirage F1B fighter aircraft from ATAC (N604AX) and a Northrop T-38 Talon trainer aircraft from the National Test Pilot School in Mojave (N638TC). You can watch the full video of this flight here<\/a>. It's two hours long, but Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> published a five-minute recap of the highlights yesterday:<\/strong><\/p>\n