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ABC News
ABC News
Business
business reporter Michael Janda

United airline company strikes deal for Boom supersonic aircraft

An artist's impression of Boom's planned Overture jet in United livery. (Supplied: United)

The possibility of supersonic air travel is alive again, with US airline United signing a deal to buy as many as 50 new fast jets from Boom.

Under the terms of the agreement between the two companies, United will buy 15 of Boom's Overture airliners, once they meet the airline's safety, operating and sustainability requirements.

The airline has also signed up for an option to buy a further 35 of the supersonic jets if things go well.

Bloomberg reports that the list price of the airliner is $US200 million ($261 million) per plane, making the initial deal worth $US3 billion ($3.9 billion), and potentially up to $US10 billion ($13.1 billion) if the option on a further 35 planes was taken up in full.

Boom is hoping that Overture will take to the skies for testing by 2026, with the first commercial passengers carried by 2029.

The aircraft is designed to fly at nearly 20,000 metres, travelling at up to 1.7 times the speed of sound while carrying between 65 to 88 passengers.

With a range of just under 7,900 kilometres, United said the plane could connect more than 500 destinations in nearly half the travel time of conventional subsonic airliners.

Civilian supersonic air travel is banned over land in the US, but United sees potential on numerous international routes.

United cited New York (Newark) to London in three-and-a-half hours, to Frankfurt in four hours and San Francisco to Tokyo in six hours as key routes that may be serviced.

"It has a tremendous amount of value for a big chunk of our high-end business customers," United's vice-president for corporate development Mike Leskinen told Bloomberg.

Aside from being fast, Boom said Overture was expected to be the first large commercial aircraft to be net-zero carbon emitting, being designed specifically to operate on 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel.

"United continues on its trajectory to build a more innovative, sustainable airline and today's advancements in technology are making it more viable for that to include supersonic planes," the airline's CEO Scott Kirby said.

"Boom's vision for the future of commercial aviation, combined with the industry's most robust route network in the world, will give business and leisure travellers access to a stellar flight experience."

"The world's first purchase agreement for net-zero carbon supersonic aircraft marks a significant step toward our mission to create a more accessible world," said Blake Scholl, Boom Supersonic founder and CEO.

Japan Airlines and Richard Branson's Virgin have pre-orders for the aircraft, which is effectively an option to buy the plane, Boom told Bloomberg, but the United deal is the first time an airline has put down a cash deposit.

'Doubt it will ever happen'

Aviation analyst Neil Hansford is dubious that the deal will eventuate in a final transaction.

"I doubt it will ever happen," he told ABC News.

Mr Hansford said the concept of fast, but expensive, flights runs against a current decline in first-class travel and seat, with many who have that kind of wealth flying in rented charter jets or their own private planes. 

He also believes that United is the wrong airline to capture that high-end segment of the market.

"If it had been someone like Etihad or Emirates it would have some credibility," he said.

Will Overture succeed where Concorde failed?

Large scale commercial supersonic jet travel has been in a hiatus since the Concorde was officially retired in 2003, three years after a fatal crash in France that killed all on board.

Concorde was slightly faster than the Overture is planned to be, cruising at around twice the speed of sound.

However, a downturn in air travel after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, maintaining ageing airframes and the rising cost of fuel — which the plane used in vast quantities — combined to make flying the aircraft uneconomic.

Mr Hansford, who once flew on Concorde, said the plane had other serious drawbacks.

One was its famously loud engine noise, combined with the shockwave when breaking through the sound barrier, which prevented operation over some areas.

Another was space.

"I couldn't carry an ordinary briefcase because there wasn't enough room," he said.

He added that his baggage came hours after he arrived on Concorde, carried on a regular commercial flight.

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