Japan Airlines pre-orders 20 Boom supersonic passenger jets

Japan Airlines has made a $10 million investment and pre-order of 20 Boom supersonic passenger jets.

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.

Boom Technology is a startup company aiming to create a 55-passenger civilian supersonic transport aircraft to fly up to Mach 2.2 (1,262 kn; 1,452 mph; 2,337 km/h). It could fly from New York City to London in 3 hours and 24 minutes at a proposed round trip cost of $5,000.

Total of 76 Pre-orders

At the 2017 Paris Air Show, 51 commitments were added for a backlog of 76 with significant deposits as its introduction is scheduled for 2023. For long-range routes like San Francisco-Tokyo and Los Angeles-Sydney, 30 lie-flat first-class seats could be proposed along 15 business-class seats. Boom targets $5,000 fares for a New York to London round-trip, while the same on Concorde cost $20,000 adjusted for inflation. It was its only profitable route, whereas 500 routes could be profitable with Boom. The 55-seat airliner would weigh 77,100kg (170,000lb).

Engines should be selected in 2018: a derivative of a commercial engine or a clean-sheet design, unlikely a military engine due to export controls. The same fuel burn enable similar fares to subsonic business class among other factors. Its factory will be sized to assemble up to 100 aircraft per year for a 1,000 to 2,000 aircraft potential market over 10 years.

The japan airlines pre-orders has increased the commitments to 76 from five airlines.

FAA noise exemption passed by Senate, awaiting House passage

Supersonic jets could be exempted from the FAA noise regulations, reducing the its fuel consumption by 20-30% through narrower engines optimiszd for acceleration over limiting take-off noise. It should operate at a quarter of the costs of Concorde by relying on dry engines, composite structures and existing technology.

Demonstrator plane built and will fly in 2018

The XB-1 “Baby Boom” supersonic demonstrator was unveiled in Denver on November 15, 2016. It is 68 feet (21 meters) long, has a 17 feet (5.2 meters) wingspan and a 13,500 lb (6,100 kg) maximum take-off weight. It is powered by three 3,500 lbf (16 kN), non-afterburning General Electric J85-21 engines with variable geometry inlets and exhaust, the prototype should be able to sustain Mach 2.2 with more than a 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km) range. Constructed of lightweight composites, it has a two-crew cockpit, chined forebody and swept trailing edges. Its preliminary design review was completed by June 2017 for a late 2018 flight test.

Engines won’t be an exotic new design but a modified version of current turbofans. They will will have higher maintenance costs. Airframe maintenance costs should be similar to other carbon fiber airliners.

Five hundred daily routes would be viable.

At Mach 2.2 over water
New York and London would be 3 hours and 15 minutes apart
Miami and Santiago, Chile would be 3 hours and 48 minutes apart.

With a 4,500 nautical mile worth of range, transpacific flights would require a refueling stop :
San Francisco and Tokyo would be 5 hours and 30 minutes apart
Los Angeles, and Sydney would be 6 hours and 45 minutes apart.