What did United's CEO say about Boom's 2029 target?
United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby has publicly doubted Boom Supersonic's plan to deliver its Overture airliner in 2029. He made the remark on Office Hours: Business Edition, a podcast hosted by former Wall Street Journal reporter Monica Langley. The episode was posted on 28 October 2026.
"It's not going to happen in '29. It's going to take longer," Kirby said, according to Forbes. He added that United would "likely be the first airline" if Overture enters service. United signed on as Boom's first US airline customer in June 2021.
Kirby did not dismiss the company. He said Overture must clear certification and that Boom has "a lot of hurdles to overcome". He also praised founder Blake Scholl for doing "an incredible job of pivoting when he needed to". That pivot is unusual for an aerospace supplier, because Boom now sells gas turbines to AI data centers.
The comments carry weight because of who is speaking. United has a conditional agreement for 15 Overtures, with options for 35 more. Kirby is therefore both a customer and an outside judge of the schedule. In March 2026 he put Overture's chances of entering commercial service at 50-50, Ars Technica reported.
Boom did not provide a new schedule in response. Forbes said Boom did not answer emails and that Scholl did not reply to a message on X. Ars Technica also sought comment. Scholl's last detailed public defense came in a March email to Forbes. "Much tough work remains—but we're proud of what our team has accomplished, and we're never giving up," he wrote.
The remark matters beyond one aircraft. Airline chief executives rarely contradict a supplier's public timeline while holding a deposit-backed order. A launch customer's doubt also gives investors and regulators a reason to ask what the 2029 date was based on.
How far has Overture's schedule already slipped?
Boom's public dates have moved repeatedly. In 2021 United's announcement said Overture was "slated to roll out in 2025, fly in 2026 and expected to carry passengers by 2029". That sentence is still on United's press release page. Neither of the first two milestones happened on that schedule.
The pattern is older than that. Japan Airlines announced a partnership in December 2017, with an option for up to 20 aircraft. Its release said Overture would "rollout in 2025" with "entry into service planned for 2029". American Airlines signed for up to 20 aircraft in August 2022. Its release repeated the 2025 rollout and 2029 passenger target.
Boom has since stopped publishing a delivery year on its Overture product page. The page lists specifications, routes and 130 orders and pre-orders, but no first-flight or entry-to-service date. Boom's press releases have described certification and first paying passengers by 2029, according to Ars Technica.
Physical progress is real but early. XB-1, Boom's demonstrator, broke the sound barrier on 28 January 2025. It reached Mach 1.122 at 35,290 feet, according to Boom. XB-1 is a small demonstrator, not a 60-to-80-seat airliner. Overture is designed for Mach 1.7.
The factory tells a similar story. Boom finished its Overture plant at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2024. The facility has mostly sat dormant since then, Ars Technica reported. North Carolina provided more than $50 million in taxpayer funding to help build it.
Certification is the harder constraint. Overture would be the first new civil supersonic airliner to seek certification since Concorde. That requires an engine, a flight-test campaign and a whole-aircraft type certificate. Boom's Symphony engine has not yet flown. Its first full core, called Sprint Core, has not been fired.
Symphony adds its own risk. Boom introduced the engine in December 2022 as a twin-spool, medium-bypass turbofan with no afterburner. It is designed for 35,000 pounds of thrust at takeoff and to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. No medium-bypass turbofan has powered a certified supersonic airliner before.
None of this is unusual in aerospace, and a slip is not proof of failure. The question is what the company's funding and credibility can absorb. Boom's answer has been to sell power equipment while the airliner matures.
Why is Boom building gas turbines for AI data centers?
Boom's second product is Superpower, a 42-megawatt natural gas turbine. It is rated at 42 MW on an ISO basis and produces full output at ambient temperatures up to 110°F, according to Boom. The company says it uses no water and ships as four road-transportable modules: intake, turbine, generator and exhaust.
The design borrows heavily from the airliner engine. TechCrunch reported that Superpower shares about 80% of its parts with Symphony. Boom says both use the same engine core, which is designed to hold high power output under severe thermal conditions. A turbine that runs hot is a liability in an airliner and an asset in a power plant.
Boom launched the business on 9 December 2025 with a $1.25 billion backlog and a $300 million funding round. The round was led by Darsana Capital, with Altimeter, ARK Invest, Bessemer, Robinhood Ventures and Y Combinator participating. Crusoe, a data center developer, was named launch customer for 29 units, or 1.21 gigawatts.
On 22 October 2026 Boom opened a Superpower factory in Centennial, Colorado. The plant covers nearly 200,000 square feet in two buildings and represents a $150 million investment. Boom says it will create up to 500 jobs and reach 2 gigawatts of annual production, or 50 turbines, by 2029. First customer deliveries are targeted for mid-2027.
The first turbine core is now built. Boom calls it Sprint Core and says it carries more than 1,000 sensors, or about 2,000 once support systems are included. It was shipped to the company's test site at Colorado Air and Space Port. The first firing is expected before Thanksgiving 2026.
Boom is also bringing component work in-house. The Centennial campus is meant to make about 85% of each turbine by mass, including compressor vanes, shafts, cases and frames. Boom plans a digital foundry for single-crystal blades and vanes, with first components due to ship in 2027. The company says the same factories could pivot to defense work through software changes.
Boom's argument is that the power business pays for the airliner. In its December 2025 release the company said Superpower revenue would finance certification and delivery of Overture. The same core feeds both programs, so test hours on the turbine produce data for the engine.
Kirby, the skeptic, is not dismissive of this part. He said a supersonic turbine runs hotter than a conventional engine and has "the potential to be one of the best power sources", according to Forbes.
What happened to Boom's $1.25 billion Crusoe order?
The launch order did not survive the year. On 25 September 2026 Scholl posted on X that Boom and Crusoe were no longer proceeding with the turbine partnership. Crusoe had agreed to buy 29 Superpower units for $1.25 billion, with first deliveries due in 2027, TechCrunch reported.
Scholl wrote that Boom would deliver "about 250MW of Superpowers next year to other sites" and was "targeting 1GW in 2028". He did not name those sites or customers. A Crusoe spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company still plans to use turbines, "just not Boom's".
The loss removes the only publicly named customer for Superpower. Boom's $1.25 billion backlog figure was built on that single order. The company has not announced a replacement order of comparable size. Its October factory release describes capacity and milestones but no new customers.
Demand for on-site power is not in doubt. Data center developers are turning to gas turbines because new grid connections can take years. Crusoe itself is building a 900-megawatt campus in Abilene, Texas, for Microsoft, powered by on-site gas turbines, according to TechCrunch. Boom's problem is competition, not the market.
The trend is broader than Boom. Ars Technica, citing the market intelligence firm Cleanview, noted that developers are using mobile gas generators and aeroderivative turbines originally designed for aircraft and warships. Boom is trying to sell its own turbine into a crowded and urgent market.
There is also a credibility gap to close. Selling a turbine is different from building one at volume. Boom has assembled a first core and booked a factory, but it has not run the machine in public. The first firing will matter more than any headline capacity figure.
Is supersonic flight over land legal in the US?
Not yet, despite what Boom's marketing implies. Boom's Superpower page says XB-1 "led directly to the legalization of supersonic flight in America". Scholl made a similar claim in his March email to Forbes, that Boom had "successfully legalized supersonic flight in the US". The rule is still a proposal.
The FAA published a notice of proposed rulemaking on 2 July 2026. Docket FAA-2026-6935 would replace the 1973 ban on civil supersonic flight over land with a noise-based standard. Comments closed on 17 August 2026. The FAA says it aims to finalize two supersonic rules by mid-2027.
The change follows Executive Order 14304, "Leading the World in Supersonic Flight", signed in June 2025. The order directs the FAA to repeal the 53-year prohibition and to establish noise certification standards. It also calls for safety agreements with foreign regulators.
Two technical approaches are in play. Boom's Boomless Cruise relies on Mach cutoff: fly high and fast enough that the shock wave refracts upward and never reaches the ground. Boom says XB-1 broke the sound barrier three times in January 2025 without an audible boom. It says the technique could allow Mach 1.3 over land.
NASA is testing a different idea. Its X-59 research aircraft has a long, needle-like nose designed to soften the boom into a thump. The FAA says X-59 flight tests are key to finalizing the first rule. The agency is also working with ICAO on international noise standards.
The FAA rule covers US airspace only. Flights between the US and Europe cross mostly water, which is where Boom expects Mach 1.7. Overland legs in other countries would still depend on their own regulators. A US rule change alone cannot rewrite a global route network.
The distinction matters commercially. Under current rules Boom planned to fly Overture at Mach 0.94 over land and Mach 1.7 over water. Faster overland legs would widen the routes where supersonic flight pays. A proposed rule does not deliver that yet, and the final standard could be stricter than Boom hopes.
How many Overture orders does Boom have?
Boom counts 130 orders and pre-orders, a figure it uses on its Overture and airline pages. The total includes purchases and options, not 130 firm aircraft. The three named customers are United, American and Japan Airlines.
The specifications are consistent across Boom's pages and the airline releases. Overture is designed for Mach 1.7 over water, a 4,250-nautical-mile range, 60 to 80 passengers and 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Boom says it should cut a New York to London trip to about 3 hours 40 minutes, against 6 hours 30 minutes today.
The order book is thinner than the headline. Options can lapse, and every agreement is conditional on certification and performance. United's terms require Overture to meet its safety, operating and sustainability requirements. American attached its own customary conditions before delivery. Japan Airlines holds an option rather than a firm order.
A slip in the timeline does not cancel those agreements. It does test them. Airlines plan fleets years ahead, and a launch customer that publicly doubts the date has leverage to renegotiate or wait.
- •United: 15 aircraft with options for 35 more, agreed in June 2021 and conditional on meeting safety, operating and sustainability requirements.
- •American: up to 20 aircraft with options for 40 more, agreed in August 2022. American paid a non-refundable deposit on the first 20.
- •Japan Airlines: a $10 million investment and an option to buy up to 20 aircraft, announced in December 2017.
What should we watch next?
The nearest test is mechanical. Sprint Core is due to fire for the first time before Thanksgiving 2026 at Colorado Air and Space Port. A successful run would give Boom real data on the core that both businesses depend on. A failure or delay would compress the timetable for Superpower deliveries and Symphony.
The regulatory clock is separate. The FAA wants two final rules by mid-2027. Until the noise standard is fixed, Boom cannot know how fast Overture can fly over land. That figure shapes route economics and airline interest.
Overture itself needs a first flight and a certification campaign. Boom has not published a date for either. Watch whether the company restates a schedule after Kirby's remarks, and whether United converts options or defers them.
On the power side, watch for a named Superpower customer. Boom's credibility in the data center market now rests on orders it can disclose, not on capacity it can build. The Centennial factory and the Greensboro plant are both bets that demand arrives on schedule.
The wider question is whether one company can carry two capital-intensive programs at once. Boom's answer is that the turbine funds the airliner. Kirby's answer is that the airliner still has hurdles, and that 2029 is no longer realistic. Both can be true, and the next twelve months will show which matters more.