Article Exaggerates Speed Of Boom Supersonic Jet

Dear Editor,

The article entitled “Boom Supersonic Announces That All Its Planes Will Be Green” misstates a few facts regarding the Boom Supersonic Airliner Program. First, the Overture Aircraft in development will not be the fastest commercial airliner in history as claimed in the article. On paper this plane will fly at Mach 1.7. The Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde flew at Mach 2. So even if Boom pulls this audacious plan off, it will not break the absolute speed record for commercial flight.

Secondly, the article claims the Overture would be able to fly from Atlanta to Seoul in 7 hours, instead of the 14 hours subsonic airliners take. The Overture absolutely will not be able to do this. With a published range of 4888 miles, it’s more than 2000 miles short of spanning that distance. Furthermore, the overture can’t fly supersonically over land due to an express ban on supersonic flights over land. This rule has not changed.

Finally, for a long time to come, sustainable aviation fuels warrant quite a bit of skepticism – but that’s at least a subjective discussion. The facts stated above are not subjective at all.

Nate Chaffetz