Rolls-Royce drops Boom *

Boom Supersonic has lost its engine supplier raising questions about what or who will power the aircraft.

The Derby-based engineering company has withdrawn from the project after delivering the engineering studies covered by an existing agreement, the company said.

“After careful consideration, Rolls-Royce has determined that the commercial aviation supersonic market is not currently a priority for us and, therefore, will not pursue further work on the program at this time”, the company said in a statement provided to the Denver Business Journal. “It has been a pleasure to work with the Boom team and we wish them every success in the future”.

Boom Supersonic is an eight-year-old start-up that has been creating a supersonic airliner and attracting attention for its vision of revolutionizing travel with international flights that take half the time of current journeys.

The company has attracted order contracts from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines as well as interest from others.  

The company’s Overture airliners are being designed to fly twice as fast as typical passenger jets today, carrying between 65 and 80 passengers and cutting international travel times in half.

Boom Supersonic plans to have the first Overture aircraft ready for test flights in 2026 and its first commercial airline routes flying in 2029.

It is not clear whether the change in engine development will affect the company’s timeline.

When asked about Rolls-Royce’s departure, Aubrey Scanlan, spokeswoman for Boom Supersonic, indicated the company has an alternative partner in mind.

“We are appreciative of Rolls-Royce’s work over the last few years, but it became clear that Rolls’ proposed engine design and legacy business model is not the best option for Overture’s future airline operators or passengers”, she said. “Later this year, we will announce our selected engine partner and our transformational approach for reliable, cost-effective and sustainable supersonic flight”.

BTN 22 August outlines the Boom project.  www.btnews.co.uk/article/19500

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Richard Gardner, United Kingdom

This was expected to happen as the development of an efficient, noise compliant super-cruise engine for Boom would be a very expensive programme and the stated timescale of first flight in 2026 very unrealistic. A suitable SST engine does not currently exist and adapting a military powerplant would be unlikely to feature acceptable performance and operating costs. The Boom design looks very attractive and similar to a one third scale Boeing 2707 of the 1970s but the availability of an optimised engine remains the potential show-stopper.