At this year’s Paris Air Show, Boom Supersonic announced a raft of new supplier agreements that reveal technical specifications for the company’s planned Overture supersonic commercial airliner and its custom Symphony engine.
There are any number of projects these days that are aimed at the development of a 21st century supersonic commercial airliner to replace the retired Anglo-French Concorde, but the pace hasn’t exactly been breathtaking and details about the engineering have been scarce on the ground.
Boom let the cover slip slightly at Paris where it not only announced a raft of new partnerships to help build Overture, but a list of some of the innovations that will go into the prototype.
Along with its existing partners, Boom has added Aernnova, Leonardo, and Aciturri. As part of the announcement, Boom has also released schematics of the aircraft’s avionics, flight systems, undercarriage, and engine specifications.
Some of the revelations include a new fuel system that can pump fuel between tanks in flight to allow the center of gravity to be moved to suit subsonic and supersonic flight, and modifications to burn Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). In addition, the control hydraulics now have triple redundancy.
The gull wings attached to the all-composite fuselage are being developed by Aernnova for better supersonic performance while maintaining subsonic and transonic handling. Like many supersonic wings, Overture’s are thinner than subsonic versions for reduced drag and, therefore, better flight efficiency.
Meanwhile, Leonardo will deal with the primary engineering of the fuselage structural components and will act as a partner in designing and building fuselage sections, including the all-important wingbox, where the wings meet the specially contoured hull.
Aciturri has been selected to design and develop the empennage, which is the tail section and its control surfaces. This includes a differentiated horizontal stabilizer for better control at subsonic speeds.
But the heart of Overture is the Symphony engine, which was displayed at Paris as a 3D-printed one-third scale design model. According to Boom this bespoke engine will have a 25% longer service life and be 10% cheaper to operate over its lifetime than current engines.
Features of the medium-bypass turbofan Symphony include 35,000 lb of thrust, a single-stage 72-in (183-cm) fan, three low-pressure compressor stages, six high-pressure compressor stages, one high-pressure turbine stage, and three low-pressure turbine stages.
“We are incredibly proud of the progress with Overture and Symphony from our global team of partners and suppliers who continue to operate at an accelerated pace toward the future of sustainable supersonic flight,” said Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic.
