Developments in sonic boom management for the Overture aircraft

Boom Supersonic is studying various aspects of sonic boom for operation of its Overture passenger aircraft, which will fly in “Boomless Cruise” (Mach cutoff at 1.1–1.3) over land without producing an audible sonic boom and Mach 1.7 cruise flight over water. The presentation will discuss Boom’s approach to sonic boom management for over land and over water operations, recent learnings in this space, and areas where the research community can influence future science and technology advancements that further enable civil supersonic flight. One focus area will be learnings from Boom’s XB-1 flight test in January 2025, which successfully demonstrated Mach cutoff where no audible sonic boom reached the ground in two flights and six supersonic runs. Audio of the flight was recorded by microphones on the ground to characterize the resultant sound waves during Mach cutoff operation, particularly evanescent waves. Boom also conducted pre-flight analysis of the flight test that quantified the probability of success for Mach cutoff operations. Another focus area includes prediction of secondary sonic booms for Mach 1.7 cruise operations and its influence on routing to minimize the impact of primary and secondary booms on land.