Kratos will help Boom create the Symphony engine for the supersonic Overture passenger jet, which can fly from New York to London in four hours

Boom has found a partner who will help it develop an engine for the supersonic Overture passenger plane.

Here's What We Know

In September, Rolls-Royce announced it was pulling out of the Overture supersonic jet project, explaining its decision with financial difficulties. A few days later Pratt & Whitney, Safran Aircraft Engines, GE Aviation and Honeywell announced they were not interested in developing the engine. But Boom Supersonics managed to find a partner. It was the company Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, more precisely, a division of Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT).

The company's specialists are experienced in creating engines for supersonic aircrafts. The engineers gained this experience during the development of engines for fifth generation fighters F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.

Boom Supersonics claims that the Overture aircraft will be able to fly from Tokyo to San Francisco in 6 hours and from New York to London in 4 hours. The engine is called Symphony. It will allow the supersonic airliner to reach a speed of Mach 1.7 (2,100 km/h), which is twice the speed of mainline aircraft.

Boom plans to begin assembling the first Overture in 2024, with test flights scheduled to begin in 2027. Certification of the aircraft is scheduled for 2029. Despite the fact that the commercial version is still a long way off, Boom has already got several contracts worth 26 billion dollars. In particular, American Airlines has ordered 20 planes and United Airlines - 15 units. And in both cases, an option - for 40 and 35 copies, respectively.

Source: Engadget