The aerospace startup wants to bring supersonic passenger flights back to America. But as its Greensboro factory awaits production, the company is pursuing an unexpected second business: building turbines to power artificial intelligence.
By Alex Womack | Creative Loafing Charlotte
More than two decades after the Concorde made its final flight, an American aerospace company is attempting to bring supersonic passenger travel back to the skies.
Its name is Boom Supersonic, and its ambitions extend far beyond building a faster airplane.
Founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Blake Scholl, the Denver-based company is developing Overture, a supersonic passenger jet designed to fly at approximately Mach 1.7—roughly twice the cruising speed of today’s conventional commercial airliners.
The promise is compelling: cross the Atlantic in approximately half the time, connect distant business centers more efficiently, and restore a capability that commercial aviation abandoned in 2003.
But Boom’s story has taken an unexpected turn.
The company is now using technology from its aircraft-engine program to develop natural-gas turbines for artificial intelligence data centers.
And at the center of its aviation ambitions sits a manufacturing facility in Greensboro, North Carolina, where taxpayers and local leaders have made a substantial investment in the company’s future.
The result is one of the more fascinating—and financially uncertain—industrial experiments underway in America.
Breaking the Sound Barrier
On January 28, 2025, Boom achieved a genuine aerospace milestone.
Its experimental XB-1 aircraft, piloted by Tristan Brandenburg, broke the sound barrier over California’s Mojave Desert.
The aircraft reached Mach 1.122 during its first supersonic flight, becoming the first independently developed civil jet to achieve supersonic flight.
A second supersonic flight followed in February, reaching Mach 1.18 before Boom retired the demonstrator.
It was an important achievement for a private company attempting to enter one of the most technically challenging industries in the world.
But XB-1 was a small research aircraft—not a commercial passenger jet.
The much larger Overture must still complete its own development, flight-testing and certification process before carrying paying passengers.
That distinction matters.
Breaking the sound barrier proves that Boom can design and fly a supersonic demonstrator. Building a safe, economically viable passenger aircraft is an entirely different challenge.
Meet Overture: The Proposed Successor to Concorde
Boom’s Overture is designed to carry approximately 65 to 80 passengers in a premium-class configuration, depending on the final design.
Its targeted cruising speed is Mach 1.7, with a planned range of approximately 4,250 nautical miles.
That could make routes such as New York to London dramatically faster than they are today.
Boom envisions fares comparable to existing business-class service rather than the extraordinarily expensive tickets historically associated with Concorde.
Major airlines have expressed interest.
American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines account for a combined 130 orders, preorders and related commitments cited by Boom.
However, those announcements should not be confused with aircraft already delivered or guaranteed future revenue. Airline agreements are subject to contractual conditions, including development and certification milestones.
Overture has not yet entered commercial service, and the aircraft remains in development.
The critical obstacle is propulsion.
Boom is developing a new engine called Symphony, designed specifically for sustained supersonic flight.
Modern aircraft engines must balance fuel consumption, noise, reliability, maintenance expenses and environmental requirements.
Designing a completely new commercial jet engine is therefore a major undertaking.
Boom has chosen to develop substantial portions of Symphony itself rather than rely entirely on an established engine manufacturer.
If successful, this could provide the company with greater control over its technology.
It also adds considerable engineering and financial risk.
Why North Carolina Became Central to Boom’s Plans
In January 2022, Boom selected Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro as the location for its first Overture manufacturing facility.
The project represented an enormous opportunity for the region.
Boom announced plans for more than $500 million in investment and approximately 1,750 jobs by 2030, with longer-term employment ambitions exceeding 2,400 positions.
State officials also projected billions of dollars in potential economic activity over two decades.
Those figures were projections contingent on the development succeeding—not economic benefits already realized.
The Overture Superfactory was completed in June 2024.
Its first assembly facility covers approximately 179,000 square feet and was designed to eventually manufacture up to 33 aircraft annually. A proposed second assembly line could double that capacity.
Greensboro offered several practical advantages, including an established aerospace workforce, proximity to aviation suppliers, access to technical education and an airport capable of supporting aircraft manufacturing and testing.
North Carolina also has an important historical connection to aviation.
The Wright brothers achieved powered flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
More than a century later, the state hopes to participate in another significant leap forward in aviation technology.
But the ambitious factory project faces a serious question: when will aircraft production actually begin?
A Factory Waiting for Its Airplanes
According to March 2026 reporting by The News & Observer, Boom’s Greensboro manufacturing facility remained idle nearly two years after its completion.
North Carolina had allocated almost $107 million in public funds related to the project, including site preparation, road improvements and construction reimbursement.
More than $50 million in taxpayer funds had already been spent.
The report also identified an approaching employment deadline.
Under Boom’s lease arrangements, the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority can terminate the company’s lease if its Greensboro workforce remains below 500 employees after December 31, 2026.
That is an available contractual remedy, not an automatic termination.
Boom has continued expressing its intention to develop Overture and establish production in Greensboro.
Still, the delays reveal an important reality about economic-development incentives.
A completed factory is not the same as an operating manufacturer.
The ultimate return on North Carolina’s investment depends on aircraft production, employment, supply-chain spending and long-term commercial success.
For a region building its reputation as an aerospace hub, Boom’s progress is especially consequential.
The Unexpected Second Business: Powering Artificial Intelligence
Perhaps the most surprising development came in December 2025.
Boom announced a new product called Superpower, a 42-megawatt natural-gas turbine designed to generate electricity for AI data centers.
The concept emerged from the company’s Symphony engine technology.
According to Boom, the power-generation turbine shares approximately 80% of its hardware with the aircraft engine program.
That overlap could allow engineering work, manufacturing capabilities and supplier relationships to support two separate markets.
The timing was significant.
Artificial intelligence companies are rapidly constructing data centers that require enormous amounts of electricity.
In some regions, connecting new facilities to the existing power grid can involve lengthy delays.
Large data-center operators are increasingly exploring dedicated on-site power generation.
Boom saw an opportunity to adapt its engine technology to meet that demand.
In December 2025, the company announced a $1.25 billion agreement involving 29 Superpower turbines for data-center developer Crusoe.
It also announced a $300 million financing round supported by investors including Darsana Capital Partners, Altimeter Capital, ARK Invest and others.
The strategy had an unusual appeal.
Instead of spending years developing an aircraft before earning meaningful revenue from its propulsion technology, Boom could potentially commercialize a related industrial product sooner.
Revenue and profits from power turbines could then help finance development of the supersonic aircraft.
In theory, one engineering platform could support two substantial industries: aviation and electricity generation.
A $1.25 Billion Setback
That strategy suffered a major setback in September 2026.
TechCrunch reported that Crusoe had abandoned plans to use Boom’s turbines, ending the companies’ original launch partnership.
Crusoe confirmed that it still planned to use turbines in its energy infrastructure—but not Boom’s equipment.
For Boom, the loss was significant.
Its original launch customer had represented a substantial portion of the publicly announced business supporting its power-generation strategy.
However, CEO Blake Scholl indicated that other customers remained in the pipeline.
He said Boom was targeting approximately 250 megawatts of Superpower deliveries to other sites in 2027 and one gigawatt in 2028.
Those are company targets, not completed deliveries or independently verified new orders.
The cancellation does not necessarily invalidate the underlying engineering concept.
But it demonstrates that securing a large prospective contract is different from manufacturing, delivering and successfully operating industrial equipment.
Boom must now demonstrate that its turbine technology can compete with established power-generation manufacturers while continuing its aviation ambitions.
The Environmental Question
There is another important issue surrounding both sides of Boom’s business.
Supersonic aircraft are historically less fuel-efficient per passenger than conventional aircraft.
Boom intends to make Overture compatible with 100% sustainable aviation fuel, potentially reducing life-cycle emissions when appropriately produced fuels are available.
But compatibility with sustainable fuel does not automatically make an aircraft carbon-neutral.
Research from the International Council on Clean Transportation suggests that supersonic passenger travel would consume substantially more fuel per seat than modern subsonic aircraft.
Sustainable aviation fuel also remains expensive and limited in supply.
Similarly, Boom’s Superpower product is designed to burn natural gas.
Although on-site turbines may help data-center operators overcome electricity constraints, they generate greenhouse-gas emissions and other pollutants.
The environmental economics will depend on actual equipment efficiency, operating patterns, fuel sourcing and available alternatives.
Speed and energy availability are valuable.
But their true costs must be understood.
Can America Build a New Aerospace Champion?
Boom Supersonic represents a particular kind of American industrial ambition.
Rather than focusing exclusively on software, the company is attempting to design and manufacture extremely sophisticated physical products.
That requires engineers, technicians, machinists, production systems, suppliers, testing facilities and extraordinary financial discipline.
It also requires patience.
Aviation is an industry where safety, reliability and certification cannot be bypassed simply because investors want faster growth.
The company’s biggest challenge is turning technical progress into economically sustainable production.
Its original aircraft vision remains unproven at commercial scale.
Its new power-generation business has faced an important customer setback.
And its Greensboro factory has yet to deliver the employment and production results originally envisioned.
Nevertheless, Boom has demonstrated a meaningful capability with XB-1 and continues developing technology that could have applications beyond passenger aviation.
The important question is whether those achievements can support an enduring industrial enterprise.
What Boom’s Future Means for North Carolina
North Carolina has increasingly positioned itself as a destination for advanced manufacturing and aerospace investment.
Companies such as Honda Aircraft and newer entrants including JetZero have contributed to the Piedmont Triad’s growing reputation in aviation.
Boom’s presence adds both opportunity and uncertainty.
If Overture succeeds, Greensboro could become one of the world’s notable centers for supersonic aircraft production.
A successful manufacturing program could create skilled jobs, attract suppliers and strengthen the region’s technical workforce.
If the project fails, the region will need to determine how best to preserve the value of the public investment and industrial facilities already built.
Either outcome offers lessons about innovation.
Transformative technologies require capital, talent, perseverance and a willingness to take risks.
But lasting prosperity comes from turning technological possibilities into products customers actually buy.
Boom Supersonic has proven that a privately developed American jet can break the sound barrier. The next challenge is proving that its technology can sustain a profitable manufacturing business.
For Greensboro, North Carolina and the future of aviation, that is the real story to watch.