Boom Supersonic is pursuing two ambitious businesses: a supersonic passenger airliner and natural gas turbines for AI data centers. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, one of the airliner project’s early backers, doubts the Overture will be ready on Boom’s stated schedule. He says the aircraft will take longer than the company’s 2029 target.
United questions the Overture schedule
In an interview on the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast that appeared on October 28, 2026, Kirby said Boom’s official timeline for the first Overture delivery is not realistic. “It’s not going to happen in ‘29—it’s going to take longer,” he told host Monica Langley.
Kirby’s concern is not limited to timing. He said Boom still has “a lot of hurdles to overcome” as it develops the aircraft and seeks certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He praised Boom CEO Blake Scholl and the company, while cautioning that overcoming those hurdles is not guaranteed.
The remarks follow Kirby’s assessment in March that the chances of Overture entering commercial service were “50-50.” They also put a prominent customer’s doubts alongside Boom’s own public schedule, which has described certification and the first paying passengers by 2029.
What remains between a prototype and passenger service
Boom drew attention with flights of its XB-1 demonstrator in 2024 and 2025. Those flights were used to demonstrate “boomless cruise,” a concept based on the Mach cutoff phenomenon. At particular altitudes and atmospheric conditions, shockwaves can refract upward, reducing their impact on the ground.
That work is distinct from NASA’s X-59, which has been undergoing test flights since October 2025. Its long, needle-like nose is designed to reduce sonic booms. The two efforts address the effects of supersonic flight through different approaches.
Demonstrating a flight concept does not by itself establish that an airliner is ready for commercial operation. Boom still needs to develop Overture and secure FAA certification. The company’s conditional agreements with American Airlines, Japan Airlines, and United Airlines include non-refundable deposits of unknown amounts. They would allow those airlines to purchase aircraft once Overture is commercially available.
Regulatory conditions may also change. In June 2026, the FAA proposed a rule to overturn the long-standing ban on commercial supersonic flights over the United States, following an executive order from President Donald Trump. That proposal supports the possibility of a future market, but it does not resolve the development and certification hurdles Kirby identified.
A factory stands alongside questions about progress
Boom completed its Overture production factory in 2024 at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. The facility has mostly sat dormant since then, raising questions among North Carolina state leaders. The state provided more than $50 million in taxpayer funding to help build it.
The gap between a completed factory and an aircraft ready for airline service illustrates why the schedule remains under scrutiny. A production site is one part of the effort; the aircraft itself must still advance through development and certification before the conditional airline agreements can turn into purchases.
Turbines offer a second business, with a lost customer
Boom has also turned toward natural gas turbines as a potential revenue stream. On October 22, it unveiled a factory in Centennial, Colorado, for its 42-megawatt Superpower turbine, intended to supply data centers. The company said the factory was making turbine parts while construction continued.
Boom aims to deliver its first turbines to AI data center customers in mid-2027, then reach annual production of 25 turbines in 2028 and 50 in 2029. But the company has already lost one substantial prospective order. Scholl acknowledged that data center developer Crusoe had walked away from a $1.25 billion deal to buy 29 turbines.
Scholl said Boom “will be delivering about 250MW of Superpowers next year to other sites,” without identifying those customers. Boom has presented turbine development as connected to its airliner program: the company says a prototype core called Sprint Core is intended eventually to power both Superpower and the Symphony engine for Overture.
The Sprint Core is set to undergo testing at the Colorado Air & Space Port, with Boom planning its first turbine firing before Thanksgiving. That test would mark a concrete step for the engine work, while the broader challenge remains proving that both the data center turbine business and the supersonic airliner can progress from plans to operating products.