Boom completes second flight test of one-third-scale prototype supersonic jet
The airplane startup Boom Supersonic on August 26, 2024 successfully completed the second test flight of its one-third-scale prototype XB-1 supersonic jet, taking off from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California.
The flight was manned by the company’s chief test pilot Tristan Brandenburg, and had as its primary engineering goal to test the retraction and deployment of the jet’s landing gear. During the fifteen minute flight the plane climbed to 10,400 feet and a maximum speed of 277 miles per hour.
The test checklist included retracting and extending the undercarriage for the first time, checking the plane’s handling, and the activation of a new digital stability augmentation system for roll damping to help maintain control in stall conditions. In addition, the right wing of the XB-1 was fitted with tufting to monitor the direction and strength of airflow over the wing.
The company plans a 10-flight test program with this prototype, eventually leading to flights exceeding the speed of sound. Boom also claims that its design will reduce the sound of the sonic boom, thus allowing its commercial supersonic jet to fly over land and increasing its commercial value. At the moment it has orders to sell as many as 96 of its full-scale plane to various airlines, including United and Japan.
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The airplane startup Boom Supersonic on August 26, 2024 successfully completed the second test flight of its one-third-scale prototype XB-1 supersonic jet, taking off from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California.
The flight was manned by the company’s chief test pilot Tristan Brandenburg, and had as its primary engineering goal to test the retraction and deployment of the jet’s landing gear. During the fifteen minute flight the plane climbed to 10,400 feet and a maximum speed of 277 miles per hour.
The test checklist included retracting and extending the undercarriage for the first time, checking the plane’s handling, and the activation of a new digital stability augmentation system for roll damping to help maintain control in stall conditions. In addition, the right wing of the XB-1 was fitted with tufting to monitor the direction and strength of airflow over the wing.
The company plans a 10-flight test program with this prototype, eventually leading to flights exceeding the speed of sound. Boom also claims that its design will reduce the sound of the sonic boom, thus allowing its commercial supersonic jet to fly over land and increasing its commercial value. At the moment it has orders to sell as many as 96 of its full-scale plane to various airlines, including United and Japan.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
10,400 feet is… not high. I don’t even think that clears Loveland Pass in Colorado. Are they intending this for overseas and low deserts only?
They plan to put in a flyable tunnel for the Colorado Rockies, about 1600′ below Loveland pass.
But I imagine they have in their test plan to fly at higher altitudes in future flights.
So should all the results be MULTIPLIED by THREE?? If this was a 1/3 prototype then you’d think the BIG BOY could easily go 30,000 ft and at least 821 mph?? BUT, they used a FULL SIZE Test Pilot – was there no “Peter Dinklage” test pilot available?