One of the world’s biggest airlines has bet big on supersonic jet startup Boom. On Tuesday, American Airlines that it recently agreed to buy 20 Overture planes from Boom, with the option to buy 40 more if all goes well. The deal is one of the strongest demonstrations of support for Boom, surpassing a potential 50-jet pledge was done last year. That’s all for a startup that has yet to build a working passenger jet.
At the beginning of the year, Boom announced it would at North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad International Airport. The company expects to begin construction on the “Overture Superfactory” later this year, with production next in 2024 – although the factory’s first completed jet won’t fly until about 2026. That doesn’t stop Boom from being optimistic about Overture’s outlook, however. The company estimates the Mach 1.7 jet will complete flights between Newark and London in less than four hours and from San Francisco to Tokyo in about six hours. The company also claims the Overture will be a “net-zero carbon” aircraft thanks to its ability to fly on 100% sustainable aviation fuel.
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