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Boom is clearly the leader in this new race to air travel that's faster than sound. e company was founded in 2014 by CEO Blake Scholl, a computer science graduate from Carnegie Mellon who began his fast-paced career at Amazon. Scholl launched into personal flying in college and is a licensed pilot with an instrument rating. After visiting a Concorde SST in a museum, he became intrigued with why supersonic passenger flight had ended and how he might put a team together to restart it. e Boom Supersonic journey is reminiscent of Elon Musk's remarkable success with electric vehicles. If there's clearly a market for rapid air travel, wouldn't the well-established passenger aircraft companies like Boeing or Airbus lead the way? Not now is the short answer, even though the old French/British firm Airbus built and flew the Concorde and Boeing developed a supersonic 2707 rival design in 1963. ese days, Airbus appears content to fill orders for subsonic airplanes while Boeing is busy managing its legacy business along with public relation challenges. Gulfstream, the corporate jet producer that's part of Grumman Aerospace, worked with NASA on the X-54 supersonic prototype but stopped because of the FAA speed restrictions. Aircraft giant Lockheed Martin teamed with NASA in 2016 to develop the X-59, a prototype to test supersonic speed and noise issues. e government and private partnership has invested $839 million so far and while the plane hasn't flown yet, it recently completed low- speed taxi tests. In remarkable contrast, Boom began in 2014 and raised $700 million, using the money to design, build, and successfully fly its XB-1 supersonic test aircraft. What's more, the fledging company has designed and built its own engine, taken orders from major airlines, and started construction on its factory in North Carolina. at's entrepreneurial speed as fast as the aircraft. e challenges of flying passengers beyond the speed of sound include range, fuel burn, noise, safety, and regulations. And of course the revenue doesn't arrive until actual deliveries begin. A couple of independent startups have quietly closed shop but Spike Aerospace recently relaunched its S-512 Diplomat, a supersonic plane designed to whisk business leaders around the globe. A unique design feature of the aircraft is a nearly windowless cabin to provide a strong, quiet fuselage. e common window space is replaced by high resolution video panels fed by exterior cameras or personal entertainment. It's a perfectly logical design from a performance perspective, but I recall that an engineering team at Boeing suggested the scheme when the 787 was under development. Unfortunately, airline customers feared that few passengers would be willing to come aboard. When will we be able to fly supersonic without joining the military? My guess is rather soon and I'm saving up some frequent flyer miles to book a flight! @ranchandcoast RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2025 97