United Airlines CEO says Boom’s supersonic jet will miss 2029 target

In short: United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says Boom Supersonic’s first passenger jet will likely be delayed past its 2029 goal.

What happened

United Airlines was one of the early airlines to sign a conditional deal for Boom Supersonic’s planned Overture jet, a passenger plane meant to fly faster than the speed of sound. In a podcast interview released on October 28, 2026, United CEO Scott Kirby said Boom’s published timeline of 2029 “is not going to happen” and that it will take longer.

Boom has said it aims to get the plane certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is the US agency that approves aircraft safety, and to fly the first paying customers by 2029. Kirby said Boom still has “a lot of hurdles to overcome,” and he warned there is no guarantee the company will clear them.

Boom has also been spending more time on a second business, building natural gas turbines to generate electricity for AI data centers. A data center is a large building full of computers, like a factory for internet services. Boom recently opened a factory in Colorado for a planned 42-megawatt turbine and said it hopes to deliver the first units in mid-2027.

That push comes after Boom lost a major potential customer, Crusoe, in a deal that would have involved 29 turbines. Boom’s CEO said the company still expects to deliver power equipment to other sites, but did not name the customers.

Why it matters

For travelers, supersonic flights could mean shorter trips, but only if the aircraft is approved as safe and allowed to fly routes that make sense. For the wider public, delays and canceled deals are a reminder that big engineering projects often slip, even with high-profile airline interest and government support.

Source: Arstechnica