Aviation Startup Picks Engine Designer for Supersonic Plane
DALLAS—Aviation startup Boom Technology says it will power supersonic passenger jets with engines designed by a company better known for making small engines used on drones and cruise missiles.
Boom said Tuesday that Florida Turbine Technologies, or FTT, will design the engines. The company says the plane could be making test flights in 2026 and carrying passengers a few years after that.
The company says its 88-seat jet, called Overture, will use four engines, fly up to 1.7 times the speed of sound—about 1,300 mph—and use sustainable aviation fuel.
The Denver company generates plenty of skepticism in aviation circles for its ambitious schedule and certitude that supersonic passenger flights can be economically feasible and environmentally benign. Concorde, a supersonic jet that traveled transatlantic routes, was neither, and it stopped flying in 2003….