The successful first supersonic flight of Boom’s (Boom Supersonic, USA) demonstrator aircraft, XB-1, took place on January 28 2025 at the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. Boom designed, built, and flew the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet—the first civil supersonic jet made in America.

The first supersonic jet built from airliner technology, XB-1 incorporates many of the key features found on Overture, such as carbon fibre composites, digital stability augmentation, and an augmented reality vision system for landing visibility. 

Following its inaugural flight in March 2024, XB-1 completed a rigorous series of 11 human-piloted test flights under increasingly challenging conditions to evaluate systems and aerodynamics. Over the course of the flight test campaign, the XB-1 team systematically expanded the flight envelope through subsonic, transonic, and supersonic speeds—while taking smart risks and maintaining safety as top priority.

XB-1’s supersonic flight took place in the same historic airspace where Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in 1947, among many other historic firsts. The first supersonic flight of XB-1 marks the first human-piloted civil supersonic flight since Concorde’s retirement over 20 years ago, paving the way for the return of commercial supersonic flight onboard Overture. 

Overture will carry 64-80 passengers at Mach 1.7, about twice the speed of today’s subsonic airliners, on over 600 global routes.