Boom Supersonic faces timeline doubts over Overture and setback in data center turbine push

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Boom Supersonic timeline doubts

Highlights

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said Boom Supersonic is unlikely to meet its 2029 Overture delivery timeline due to FAA certification and development hurdles.
Boom opened a new factory in Centennial, Colorado, to produce 42-megawatt Superpower turbines for AI data centers but lost a $1.25 billion, 29-unit deal with Crusoe in September 2026.
Boom's Overture factory in Greensboro, North Carolina, remains largely idle despite $50 million in state support, raising concern among local officials.

Certification risks and delivery timeline

As reported by Ars Technica, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says Boom's official 2029 timeline for delivering the first Overture supersonic airliner is unlikely to be met. Speaking on the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast published on October 28, 2026, Kirby says the program will take longer and warns the company still faces major hurdles in development and Federal Aviation Administration certification.

Kirby adds that there is no guarantee Boom will clear those hurdles, even as he praises chief executive Blake Scholl and the company more broadly. His latest comments follow remarks in March, when he put the chances of Overture entering commercial service at 50-50.

Boom has previously said it expected to achieve certification and carry its first paying passengers by 2029. The company has conditional agreements with American Airlines, Japan Airlines and United Airlines, backed by non-refundable deposits of undisclosed size that would allow the carriers to complete aircraft purchases once Overture becomes commercially available.

The timeline questions come despite Boom having completed its Overture factory in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2024. The site at Piedmont Triad International Airport has largely remained inactive since then, drawing attention from North Carolina officials after the state provided more than $50 million in taxpayer support for the project.

Boom's broader supersonic ambitions are also tied to a shifting regulatory backdrop. In June 2026, the FAA proposed a rule to overturn the long-standing ban on commercial supersonic flights over the U.S., following an executive order from President Donald Trump, while NASA has been running separate X-59 test flights since October 2025 using a different noise-reduction approach.

Data center turbine strategy faces commercial test

Boom is also trying to build a second revenue stream through natural gas turbines for AI data centers, unveiling a factory in Centennial, Colorado, on October 22 to produce its 42-megawatt Superpower turbine. The company says it aims to deliver the first units in mid-2027, increase annual production to 25 turbines in 2028 and reach 50 by 2029.

The strategy aligns with a wider push by technology and data center developers toward gas-fired generation to accelerate project launches. Boom says the turbine effort is complementary to development of its Symphony engine for Overture, and during the Colorado announcement it says it has completed a prototype turbine core, called Sprint Core, intended eventually to support both the Superpower product and the aircraft engine.

Even so, the business has already suffered a commercial setback. Scholl said in a September 25 post on X that Boom lost a $1.25 billion agreement under which Crusoe would have bought 29 turbines, although he also said the company will deliver about 250 megawatts of Superpower capacity next year to other sites without naming those customers.

The Colorado program still has a near-term milestone ahead, with the Sprint Core due to be tested at the Colorado Air & Space Port and the company planning a first firing before Thanksgiving. That test could offer tangible evidence of progress, but Boom still needs to prove it can execute in both advanced aviation and power infrastructure at the same time.

In our earlier article on the U.S. AI data center boom, we examined how rising financing costs, construction delays, and power constraints are starting to undermine confidence in large-scale buildout plans. We noted that only a minority of announced projects were viewed as truly credible, as investor sentiment weakens and developers face tougher requirements to lock in power and keep budgets under control.

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