The big announcement by Boom Supersonic at Piedmont Triad International Airport on Thursday, Jan. 26 was the groundbreaking for the $500 million factory.
The groundbreaking was on the 62-acre tract Boom is leasing from PTIA and where Boom has committed to employ 1,761 workers building the Overture, its supersonic passenger jet. Not only is Boom committed to reestablishing supersonic passenger flights, it is committed to flying those jets with 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel.
Boom, founded in 2014, is headquartered in Denver, but announced in January 2022 that it had chosen PTIA for its manufacturing facility after the state of North Carolina offered $106.7 million and local governments about $15 million in economic incentives.
The state estimates that Boom would have an economic impact of $32.3 billion for the region over the next 20 years.
In September, Rolls Royce announced that it would not be collaborating with Boom on the jet engine design and manufacturing, and Boom stated that it would have a new engine partner before the end of the year.
In December, Boom announced that Florida Turbine Technologies, StandardAero and GE Additive would be designing and building the engines for the Overture, but it has not yet announced where the manufacturing facility for those engines would be.
Both NC Gov. Roy Cooper and President Pro Tem of the state Senate Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) were on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony, an indication North Carolina is being considered for that facility.
The groundbreaking was for the 174,000-square-foot factory where production is projected to begin in 2024. According to Boom, the first plane will be produced in 2026 with test flights beginning in 2027. Boom anticipates obtaining Federal Aviation Administration approval in 2029.
Boom and PTIA worked out the administrative details of building the factory in November, clearing the way for construction to begin.
Gosh, Boom sure has committed to a lot, huh? They’ve committed to hire 1761 people, committed to building a state of the art supersonic airliner (with apparently no previous experience in building ANY airliners), and committed to flying those airliners with fuel that is not currently viable.
Wow…. !
They have also committed to accepting $107 Million of taxpayers’ money. Hey! I can commit to the last one myself!
Color me skeptical. There’s a reason the only credible aerospace company (Rolls-Royce) walked away from a contract with these people to build their engines. Why would Rolls-Royce not want to earn billions from this company by making engines for them…? Maybe Boom is BS.
In the industry has long been understood to ‘never combine a new airframe with a new engine’. I would love to see Boom succeed. But their eigne partners have never made an engine this big and rated for supersonic flight before. I hope they don’t have the first test flight over Greensboro.
Would probably be first taking off from Greensboro but I imagine supersonic test would be out over the ocean. Looks like an SR 71 with more seats
BOOM!
The Triad’s cooperation with Dell a while back comes to mind! You may have called the ball….
Winston’s
He said the Triad learn to read. Greensboro and High Point were also really big on the economics that Dell was supposed to bring
You are 100% correct. Really quite sad and annoying to see Boom pulling the wool over people that do not really have any appreciation for what it takes to develop an airplane. Their COO doesn’t even know what a plane is! What a joke.
Just ask chris. He’s seen crowing about Boom since their first announcement
Chris and big city were both crowing about the Amazon distribution warehouse that was supposed to come to South Elm St. but guess what it’s not happening
Something just does not feel right about the Boom airplane project. Why hasn’t Boeing, or some other big airplane manufacturer already started such an effort? The reluctance of a known engine producer jumped on this tell you something? The air plane industries is not giving this high marks. Only PTI is raving about this. After all they have to do something with all that land they have purchased and cleared. They do a good job of moving dirt around from place to place.