Boom Supersonic partnered with NASA to capture specialized photography during supersonic flight tests of its demonstrator aircraft, XB-1.
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During XB-1’s second supersonic flight on February 10th, NASA teams on the ground used Schlieren photography, a technique to visualize the shock waves resulting from XB-1 pushing through the air at supersonic speeds. In January, XB-1 became the first independently developed jet to fly faster than the speed of sound, and the first civil supersonic jet built in America.
NASA teams also collected data on XB-1’s acoustic signature at one location on the flight route. Boom analysis found that no audible sonic boom reached the ground as the jet flew at supersonic speeds.
“This image makes the invisible visible—the first American made civil supersonic jet breaking the sound barrier. Thanks to Geppetto’s exceptional flying and our partnership with NASA, we were able to capture this iconic image,” said Blake Scholl, Founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic. “We also confirmed that XB-1 made no audible sonic boom, which paves the way for coast to coast flights up to 50% faster.”
Taking Schlieren images requires ideal conditions and timing, and exceptional flying by the pilot. Boom Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg positioned XB-1 at an exact time in a precise location over the Mojave Desert to enable NASA to photograph XB-1 flying in front of the sun, documenting the changing air density around the aircraft at speeds exceeding Mach 1.
On February 10, Boom announced that it will use data the company collected from XB-1’s test flight program to bring Boomless Cruise to its supersonic airliner, Overture. Boomless Cruise enables Overture to fly at speeds up to Mach 1.3 without an audible boom, reducing U.S. coast-to-coast flight times by up to 90 minutes.
XB-1’s second supersonic flight marked the conclusion of its groundbreaking flight test program, and the historic aircraft will now return to her birthplace in Denver, Colorado. Boom will now focus its full efforts on scaling XB-1 learnings and technology to build the Overture supersonic airliner, which already has 130 orders and pre-orders from United Airlines, American Airlines, and Japan Airlines. In 2024, Boom completed construction on the Overture Superfactory in Greensboro, North Carolina, which will scale to produce 66 Overture aircraft per year.