What is the XB-1, this supersonic aircraft heir to the Concorde whose first official flight is planned in four years ?

On January 28, an aircraft from the American company Boom Supersonic broke the sound barrier for the first time. The XB-1 is scheduled to fly as early as 2029 and the company has already received more than 130 orders worldwide.

A potential return of the famous Concorde ? The one that so amazed many of us with its technological prowess. For the first time, on January 28, 2025, an American-designed civil aircraft made a supersonic flight in the Californian sky.

This plane, called the XB-1, is the promise of an American company, Boom Supersonic, and which aims to be the successor to the famous Concorde of Air France and British Airways. The commercial version will be called Overture.

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The company plans to carry between 64 and 80 passengers per flight by 2029, according to 20 Minutes. It also plans to fly more than 600 routes around the world.

Many problems

Michel Thorigny, a pilot and aeronautical propulsion engineer who worked on the Concorde for six years, highlights many problems with the XB-1. The first is the supersonic “bang” – the one released when the plane exceeds the sound barrier – which is very loud and whose wave literally breaks windows at low altitude.

“This is what ruined the Concorde, which was not allowed to fly supersonically over land but only over the ocean”, adds Gérard Feldzer, president of Aviation sans frontières. “We have to see what this supersonic boom will produce on a real scale”.

Another important point is fuel consumption, which is very polluting. The American company promises that its aircraft is capable of flying 100% on non-fossil fuels.

“Designing an aircraft takes ten years, we don't know what the environmental rules will be in ten years”, says Michel Thorigny. “So it's very complicated to set up a project, whatever it may be”, he confides.

Not considered a successor

The XB-1 would be capable of flying at Mach 1.7 (1,800 kilometers per hour) and connecting Miami to London in less than five hours.

The Concorde, for its part, carried almost twice as many passengers at a speed of Mach 2.2, or 2,200 kilometers/hour, thus connecting Paris to New York in just three and a half hours.

Michel Thorigny sees the Boom Supersonic project as a simple “experimental aircraft” that could contribute to research “on aerodynamics and new materials”.