All raring to take the limelight just months ago, the firm planning the revival of supersonic jetliners has possibly turned tail…
Just months ago, reports were rife, detailing the plans of Boom Supersonic to revive the supersonic flight sector. Now, plans for expanding into AI data center power have overtaken the Overture, for now.
The firm’s CEO Blake Scholl had framed the move as a renaissance for both energy and supersonic flight, but early backers of each business have either questioned the schedule or walked away. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, an early customer, had said on a 28 October 2026 podcast that the official 2029 delivery target will slip, cited hurdles such as FAA certification, and said success is not guaranteed. In March, he had put the odds of the Overture ever entering service at “even.”
Boom’s technical case rests on its XB-1 demonstrator, flown in 2024 and 2025 to show a “boomless cruise” approach. It uses the Mach cutoff effect: flying just above the speed of sound at high altitude, in suitable atmospheric conditions, so shockwaves bend upward away from the ground.
NASA’s X-59, flying since October 2025, takes a different route, using an elongated nose to soften booms. Regulation has also helped. In June 2026, the FAA had proposed ending the long-standing ban on supersonic flight over US land, following a Trump executive order. American Airlines, Japan Airlines and United hold conditional agreements with non-refundable deposits of undisclosed size.
Questions also surround Boom’s Overture factory in Greensboro, North Carolina. Completed in 2024, it has mostly sat idle, drawing scrutiny from state leaders who contributed over US$50m in public funds. Meanwhile, on 22 October 2026, Boom had opened a factory in Centennial, Colorado, to build a 42-megawatt natural gas turbine for data centers, with US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Colorado Governor Jared Polis in attendance. The firm targets first deliveries in mid-2027, then 25 turbines in 2028 and 50 in 2029. Natural gas is popular with developers racing to power data centers, some of whom use truck-mounted generators or turbines adapted from aircraft and warships.
Still, Scholl had acknowledged in a 25 September 2026 post that Crusoe had canceled a US$1.25bn order for 29 turbines. He said Boom would deliver about 250 megawatts next year to unnamed sites.
Boom argues the turbine business supports the airliner project. Its impending prototype core is meant to underlie both data center power and supersonic flight power generation. The firm plans its first firing of that core before Thanksgiving at Colorado Air & Space Port, a concrete milestone, although it still has much to prove in both ventures.
