Supersonic jetliner travel, which ended more than a decade
ago with the Concorde, is set for a boost after Japan Airlines (JAL) agreed to
invest $10 million in Colorado startup Boom Technology.
The strategic partnership
deal will give JAL a 1% stake in the Denver-based company, reports Japan Times.
JAL has actually already been working with Boom for over a
year, according to Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl, but this more clearly
formalizes the relationship. Having airline stakeholders closely involved in
how the development of its aircraft and service plans will work is a huge boon
for Boom, which is a very small company.
“We’ve been working with Japan Airlines behind the scenes
for over a year now,” said Scholl. “JAL’s passionate, visionary team offers
decades of practical knowledge and wisdom on everything from the passenger
experience to technical operations. We’re thrilled to be working with JAL to
develop a reliable, easily-maintained aircraft that will provide revolutionary
speed to passengers. Our goal is to develop an airliner that will be a great
addition to any international airline’s fleet.”
The airline also secured an option to purchase as many as 20
of the aircraft Boom is developing. The Japanese carrier is the second company
to announce an intention to purchase Boom’s supersonic jet after Virgin
Atlantic to reveal its support of the US-based supersonic airliner project,
which is targeting entry into service in the mid-2020s. Together with the 10
options announced by Virgin in mid-2017, the JAL commitment represents almost
half of the 76 options received by Boom to date. Three additional operators for
the remaining 46 aircraft remain unidentified.
“We are very proud to be working with Boom on the
advancement in the commercial aviation industry. Through this partnership, we
hope to contribute to the future of supersonic travel with the intent of
providing more time to our valued passengers while emphasizing flight safety,”
said president of Japan Airlines Yoshiharu Ueki.
The plane-maker is still studying where it will assemble its
supersonic aircraft. It plans to issue a request for proposals in the first
quarter for its factory, which will offer “thousands of jobs,” Scholl said.
Boom will select a site late next year, with the facility likely to be
completed in late 2019 or 2020.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) are working on a global
standard for sonic boom that would lift the prohibition on supersonic flight
over land. The engine choice and also a noise it produces are crucial factors,
says Scholl. “We are in conversations with the European Aviation Safety Agency
and the FAA,” he notes. “It will not be louder than anything flying today (such
as the Boeing 777-300ER, for example). The conversations with the regulators
are from a total impact perspective, and where the best place is to be.”
JAL, which Scholl says intends to use its supersonic
aircraft primarily on busy North Pacific trunk routes to North America (which
is over water), has had a long-term interest in acquiring high-speed
transports. Although the Japanese carrier ordered three Concorde aircraft in
1963, these were canceled after the global oil crisis a decade later.
Similarly, the airline also provisionally ordered up to eight of the larger
Boeing 2707 before the US supersonic effort was also canceled in the early
1970s.
“The future needs friends,” Scholl said on Twitter ahead of
the announcement. “Pioneers who stick their necks out, take a stand, support
the new, the half-born, while uncertainty remains and the risk of failure is
still quite real.”
No comments:
Post a Comment