New Design: Boom Supersonic has redesigned its planned supersonic aircraft Overture. The big question is where the now four engines come from.
Boom Supersonic has redesigned their proposed supersonic flyer called the Overture. Instead of 55, it should now offer space for 65 to 80 travelers and instead of two, it will now have four engines. The fuselage of the aircraft tapers towards the rear and the wings are so-called gull wings, which have a slight kink.
Overture is said to be able to reach a speed of Mach 1.7 and fly with 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel. According to Boom Supersonic, when fully manned, the aircraft will have a range of up to 4250 nautical miles or 7871 kilometers.
Boom without followingburners
“We’ve learned so much over the past few years that we saw a real opportunity to improve the configuration,” Boom boss Blake Scholl said at the Farnborough Airshow on Tuesday (July 19). For example, the engines now have a better bypass ratio and are more efficient and quieter. Also the wings would work better at both high and low speeds.
Furthermore, no followingburner is planned, as this would be too loud and not sustainable enough. “We don’t need an followingburner to reach supersonic speeds,” says Scholl. You have enough thrust.
In the future probably without Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce, previous partner in engine development, was not mentioned much at the presentation. When asked whether they would now rely on another partner, Scholl simply said: “We have already made more progress with the drive than we can show today.” You look at different solutions. This also included existing engines that might be relatively adapted for supersonic flight.
Boom also unveiled a partnership agreement with Northrop Grumman to develop Overture Special Operations variants for the US government and its allies at Farnborough. Scholl said that troop transports, evacuations or disaster operations might be considered. But Overture will not be armed.
