Skift Travel News Blog

Boom Supersonic, the company building the world’s fastest airliner, Overture, has completed several key milestones with its technology demonstrator aircraft, the XB-1.

The XB-1 aircraft is playing a vital role in enabling the development of the Overture aircraft, which is a sustainable supersonic airliner that has been designed to fly at Mach 1.7 and run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. 

Boom Supersonic announced last week that the demonstrator aircraft had completed its first round of taxi testing, in addition to extensive ground testing since moving to the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, California earlier this year.

You can take a look at a video released showcasing the ground test below:

“The recent progress made towards XB-1’s first flight reflects the team’s collective efforts to build and safely fly the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet,” said Blake Scholl, founder and CEO at Boom Supersonic. 

The supersonic demonstrator ‘leverages 60 years of progress in airplane technologies like carbon fiber composites, advanced avionics, and digitally-optimized aerodynamics to enable sustainable supersonic travel,’ according to a release from the company.

In addition to the ongoing testing, XB-1 recently received an experimental airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and letters of authorization have been awarded to allow Chief Test Pilot Bill “Doc” Shoemaker and test pilot Tristan “Gepetto” Brandenburg to fly XB-1 over the Mojave desert.

The CEO of Southwest Airlines issued a statement to customers with new details about actions the company is taking following the debacle in the last week of December. 

The most notable new information that CEO Bob Jordan shared is that the company has created a board committee to review the company’s response during that time, and consultancy Oliver Wyman has been hired to assess the airline’s systems.

The actions are in response to several issues that led to nearly 16,000 cancellations, caused primarily by a lack of investment in back-end technology. Southwest said the incident could cost the company up to $825 million. 

In the short term, the company is working on updating the crew recovery system, enhancing the crew communications tools, and establishing supplemental operational staffing

As Southwest has said, the company plans to spend about $1 billion on tech upgrades. The recent disruption will accelerate those plans, Jordan stated. 

He also stated that, as of the end of last week, nearly all bags have been returned and nearly all refunds and reimbursements have been processed. 

“We fell short of your expectations and the high standards we have of ourselves, and for that we are deeply sorry. It is our steadfast commitment to make the necessary changes to address the issues we faced and to regain your trust and confidence,” Jordan said in the statement.

The company is holding its quarterly earnings call next week, during which executives will likely further discuss the issue.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has said it is investigating the issue, and a group of U.S. senators sent a letter Friday demanding that Jordan answer questions about the incident.