Tuesday morning, Boom Supersonic made its supersonic flight debut with its XB-1 test aircraft. The flight featured the first civil supersonic flight from a jet-powered aircraft made in America and was live-streamed for all to see. Using SpaceX’s Starlink and an iPhone, aviation enthusiasts were treated to some of the best in-flight views ever.
After years of development, Boom has finally hit one of its more important milestones: supersonic flight. The company’s long-term goal is to build the return of supersonic airline travel since the Concorde’s retirement.
Tuesday’s flight consisted of three short supersonic bursts through controlled airspace and under a waiver from the FAA, as civil supersonic flight over land is banned in US airspace. The XB-1, a subscale design of Boom’s Overture concept airliner, was accompanied by two chase planes: a Mirage F1 and a T-38. The Mirage’s mission was to provide operational support and carried a camera pod full of IMAX cameras. The T-38’s mission was to document the flight.
Normally during airborne events like launches of Virgin Galactic‘s spaceplanes, we are stuck with ground-based cameras or engineering cameras for live views. Boom had a late goal to attempt to provide live views from one of its chase planes. The solution was also required to be low-cost and use off-the-shelf tools, as they only had a few weeks to get it done.
Boom looked to SpaceX‘s Starlink. The satellite internet service has become the hot new piece of technology since it began expanding its coverage around the world. Multiple airlines have begun equipping Starlink to their aircraft to provide high-speed internet to their customers – and the reviews have been overall positive.
While Starlink’s aviation antenna would have been too large to fit in the backseat of the T-38’s cockpit, the Starlink Mini terminal was just small enough to fit and not get in the way of the jet’s ejection seats. The company detailed how it got the terminal installed in the cockpit and tested it in a blog post here. Spoiler: it features a Mazda Miata doing nearly 100 mph down a runway.
The next problem was the camera. It had to be small enough to not take up too much space in the cockpit while also having a powerful enough camera to provide stunning images. That honor went to none other than the iPhone. The company didn’t specify which iPhone model was used and was unable to be reached for publication.
However, using Starlink’s steady internet connection, the iPhone was able to connect to the internet and beam high-quality views of the XB-1 during taxi and flight, including at supersonic speeds. You could tell when they switched over to the iPhone’s camera due to the bright colors that the camera and its software can create.
Boom is expected to complete multiple more test flights using its XB-1 before moving on to focus on Overture’s development and flight testing.
