American Airlines has agreed to buy up to 20 Overture supersonic jets made by Boom in North Carolina.
-- and put down a non-refundable deposit on the planes that are still on the drawing board and years away from flying.
It has been nearly 20 years since the last supersonic passenger flight by Concorde, the British-French plane that failed to catch on because of the high cost - both for passengers and airlines. Boom says its plane will have a top speed of 1.7 times the speed of sound, or about 1,300 mph, and carry between 65 and 80 passengers.
"With a supersonic jet, you don't design a plane, you design an engine first," said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at consultant AeroDynamic Advisory. "This is just a collection of freehand drawings until that engine happens." Last month, Boom announced changes to the plane's design to make it simpler and less expensive to build and maintain. The most striking change was going from three engines, including a different type on the tail, to four identical engines under the delta-shaped wings.
While American and United have said they'll buy Boom's plane, Delta Air Lines, the other big U.S. carrier that could use it on long international flights, isn't ready to join them.
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