This? Nothing of general consequence. Once XB-1 goes supersonic, which Boom says it’ll do later this year, we’ll get real-world sonic-boom reduction data that could influence the FAA. It will also demonstrate the drag of their nose design, which should inform fuel-burn estimates for their airliner.
Following that, the hurdle is the supercruising engine. The XB-1 uses afterburning J85s to go supersonic. Presumably, getting the FAA to flip on overland bans would unlock the capital needed to finish Symphony [1].
For context, the prototype of the T-38 chase-plane that Boom employed went supersonic on its first flight in 1959. And that was a Northrop private-venture, not a government contract.
> Development of the engine will be by Kratos subsidiary Florida Turbine Technologies for engine design, General Electric subsidiary GE Additive for additive manufacturing consulting, and StandardAero for maintenance.
Impressively experienced folks behind the Symphony engine.
Never heard of Kratos or FTT, they just bought a small turbine maker. GE Additive doesn't sound like they're doing any design work, just manufacturing.
None of the majors were interested in making a 35K engine (or apparently modifying their cores with the previous 4 engine design), it would be in a zone between large biz jets and commercial single-isle. The former are hundred million dollar iterations of existing designs, the latter are billion dollar developments now. As this is not a conventional engine, it will cost $1B to certification if they're lucky.
I guess it's theoretically possible if KSA is funding it like Lucid and your expectations are way lower than Lucid.
FTT definitely knows how to design and build jet engines, but iirc all their designs so far are small subsonic engines for drones and cruise missiles. I'd love to see it happen, but his is brand new territory for them in both size and performance.
This? Nothing of general consequence. Once XB-1 goes supersonic, which Boom says it’ll do later this year, we’ll get real-world sonic-boom reduction data that could influence the FAA. It will also demonstrate the drag of their nose design, which should inform fuel-burn estimates for their airliner.
Following that, the hurdle is the supercruising engine. The XB-1 uses afterburning J85s to go supersonic. Presumably, getting the FAA to flip on overland bans would unlock the capital needed to finish Symphony [1].
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_Symphony