At the Speed of Sound: The Boom Supersonic Overture Jet Featured in Graphis Journal #372

The future of high-speed, environmentally sustainable air travel is closer than we think, and Boom Supersonic is leading the charge with a new, super sleek commercial passenger jet, the Overture!

Boom Supersonic is an aerospace design and manufacturing company with a mission “to make the world dramatically more accessible” by providing faster, safer, and more sustainable flight technology and, in doing so, bring the world a little closer together. Boom is currently based in Denver, Colorado with plans to break grounds on their new, 65-acre “superfactory” at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina later this year. At the new location, Boom will manufacture, test, and deliver Overture jets, generating more than 2,400 jobs and $32.3 billion in economic impact for the area in the process of bringing Overture to life.

Scheduled to debut with United Airlines in 2029, the Overture boasts a jet design with speeds up to mach 1.7 (twice as fast as any other commercial jet in use today). The Overture would not only cut long-distance travel times almost in half, but also maintain a net-zero carbon footprint with 100% sustainable aviation fuel, all while providing a comfortable flying experience and looking great in the process. 

The onboard experience, which Boom expects airlines to price at fares similar to typical business class on normal planes, will feature spacious single-seat rows—each with a large window framing a view of the darkness of space above, and the curvature of the Earth below. Oversized personal entertainment screens and dedicated underseat storage for each passenger add to the decadence.

Boom’s core principles are speed, safety, and sustainability and, if all goes to plan, this jet will certainly deliver. Like the overture to an opera, the Boom Overture is a beginning and also a preview: of both a new, more sustainable era in air travel; and of a time when faraway places will be easier and faster to reach. The implications of this are immense. For in time (since, after all, access leads to greater understanding), as the technology becomes more affordable, it will help close not only the physical spaces between us, but perhaps the ideological ones as well. Here’s to a smaller world. The possibilities are limitless.

To read more about the Boom and discover other amazing products, check out Graphis Journal #372, which can be purchased online at graphis.com.

Author: Holly McWhorter