Aerospace firmBoom Supersonichas gained a contract worth up to $60 million from theUS Air Force（USAF）加速其即将推出的“序曲”超音速飞行飞机的研发。
通过USAF授予AFWERX创新的手臂,the ‘STRATFI’ funding is designed to help ramp up the aero and engine-testing programs of the Overture, whose initialXB-1演示is being partially-built using 3D printing. Set to be capable of carrying up to 88 passengers at twice the speed of today’s airliners, while also running on 100% sustainable fuels, the Overture is slated to enter service by 2030.
“With STRATFI, we’re able to collaborate with the Air Force on the unique requirements and needs for global military missions, ultimately allowing Boom to better satisfy the needs of the Air Force,” said Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl. “As a potential future platform for the Air Force, Overture would offer the valuable advantage of time, an unmatched option domestically and internationally.”
“We are proud of the Air Force’s continued support and recognition of Boom’s leadership in supersonic flight—and we see our partnership as mutually beneficial.”
Boom’s supersonic flight ambition
Founded in 2014, with the aim of bringing back commercial supersonic air travel for the first time since the Concorde made its final flight in 2003, Boom Supersonic unveiled its inaugural aircraft demonstrator in October 2020. Known as the ‘XB-1,’ this proof-of-concept airliner is being built to prove the viability of the firm’s Mach 2.2-capable Overture design.
Even though this prototype will only be a third of the Overture’s size, its custom composite structure still comprises over 3,700 parts including landing gear, flight control actuators and cooling systems. To take on the mammoth task of building this demonstrator, Boom Supersonic has often turned to 3D printing, first usingStratasys公司’F370 and Fortus 3D printers to developXB-1工具和原型.
两年后，该公司同意longer-term partnership with Stratasys这使公司超越了快速原型，并为XB-1和序曲的最终用途零件生产。这笔交易之后也达成了类似的协议velo3d, which has since seen Boom Supersonic3D打印另外21 XB-1零件，包括叶片，管道和百叶窗。
Despite the fact the XB-1 hasn’t flown since it was rolled-out in late 2020, Boom Supersonic has so far managed to secure $270 million to fund its development, as well as an order for 15 Overtures fromUnited Airlines. While the firm initially announced the prototype would be flight tested in 2021, this now appears to have been delayed, although it hasn’t shifted the Overture’s slated launch date as of yet.
序曲得到空军的支持
Boom Supersonic’s latest backing comes from both the USAF’s AFWERX and AFVentures divisions. Set up to foster a culture of innovation across the service, AFWERX encompasses a number of investment programs such as AFVentures, which are designed to fund the R&D of commercial technologies that could help solve USAF problems.
The capital itself has been awarded as a Strategic Funding Increase or ‘STRATFI’ contract, the likes of which are typically dished out to help the recipients of SBIR/STTR funding scale their efforts in a way that advances the USAF’s strategic capabilities, with prior awardees including operational AI developerFalkonry和太空传感器生产商Orbital Sidekick.
In Boom Supersonic’s case, its newly-raised funding supplements that it was awarded as part of an initial SBIR Phase 2 contract in September 2020. Leveraging this additional backing, the firm now intends to accelerate some of the critical steps in the Overture’s R&D, such as its wind tunnel testing and propulsion system definition programs.
Framed as a three-year ‘strategic partnership,’ the award also represents a substantial increase in the USAF’s investment in Boom Supersonic, and it’s thought that a successor to the Overture could go on to enhance the service’s rapid global transport and logistical capabilities, particularly within its executive transport, intelligence, surveillance, recon, Special Ops or Pacific Air Force operations.
In terms of its commercial launch, Boom Supersonic says that the Overture is expected to enter production next year, before being rolled out in 2025 and beginning to fly passengers “by the end of the decade.”
Advances in flight-ready 3D printing
During the last year alone, a rising number of aviation firms have begun to adopt 3D printing as a means of optimizing the weight, lead times and costs associated with the creation of flight-ready aircraft components. In recent活页夹喷气3D打印试验,JPB Système发现它能够使其某些航空航天零件比以前快30％，最高80％。
Airbus也使用了实现3D打印一段时间，几年前首次部署了FDM技术来生产其A350飞机的元素，但是在2021年6月，该公司通过使公司更进一步首先有资格使用SLS 3D打印零件for its craft, under its Process Specification AIPS 03-07-022.
在其他地方，在国家级别的国有企业集团上Rostecgained a license from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade toserially 3D print aerospace parts本月初。作为第一家公开确认其打算在航空中部署工业3D印刷的意图的俄罗斯公司，据报道，该业务被允许生产和测试航空公司，直升机和发动机组件。
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特色图片显示Boom Supersonic的XB-1示威飞机。通过Boom Supersonic摄影。
