Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, speaks during a ceremony outside the Greensboro factory on Tuesday. … [+]
Boom Supersonic faces a difficult path as it seeks to supply planes to airlines, but it took a big step Tuesday as it celebrated the opening of its $100 million factory at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Skepticism about an entrepreneur’s plan to build supersonic planes was high within the aerospace industry but seemed to have little place at the ceremony, which was attended by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger and other community leaders; Boom employees and media.
The 180,000 square meter factory was built on schedule and within budget. The construction company’s CEO said there was “not a single OSHA reportable incident.” Chris Taylor, Boom’s vice president of manufacturing who spent 40 years at Gulfstream Aerospace, told reporters he plans to have an airplane produced every six days, about 60 a year.
A half-dozen speakers focused on North Carolina’s status as the birthplace of the Kitty Hawk flight, 300 miles away. Several joked about the competing claims between Ohio, where the Wright brothers manufactured airplanes, and North Carolina, where the brothers flew airplanes.
“I have great confidence in this project, as do the people who have invested billions of dollars in it,” Cooper said. He said airlines “see this aircraft as the future of aviation” and noted that most government incentives for Boom are “on the performance side.” They need to create the jobs they promised to create, eventually about 3,000, he said. “It is important that North Carolina takes the lead” in supersonic fighter jets, he said.
Berger referred to his “confidence, given what they are trying to do, given that the world is getting smaller and air travel is one thing that makes that possible.” He said: “Supersonic travel is something that gets you in the right plane, puts the right pieces together – I just think it’s going to take off.”
He noted that North Carolina is “what we have always been. That is a production state. In addition, we are in a state of enormous innovation.”
Berger is a Republican and Cooper is a Democrat. Berger said the state’s divided political leaders are coming together on economic development projects like Boom. “These things don’t happen if we don’t all have the same opinion,” he told reporters. He recalled that after a Toyota-Mazda partnership chose Alabama over North Carolina in 2018, “We met with Toyota’s site people. They said turnkey sites are something we’ve been missing. We decided it would be important for us to improve our efforts when it comes to site readiness.”
North Carolina offered Boom a grant, based on new tax revenue and the company’s investments, of up to $87 million over twenty years. No payments from the grant have yet been made. In addition, the Legislature has set aside $107 million for site and road improvements and aircraft hangar construction.
“These site and hangar improvements will ultimately be retained by the Airport Authority, so in the unlikely event that Boom does not complete its plans, the state’s investments in the site will remain protected,” said David Rhoades, spokesman for the N.C. Department of Commerce.
When asked whether the turmoil at Boeing is benefiting Boom, Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom, said: “It has never been clearer that the world is not well served by the duopoly we have in commercial aviation.” He said the first plane, Overture, would cost about $200 million. .
Recalling that some Boeing planes are offered at a similar price, he said the Overture would fly twice as fast as a Boeing jet, so “It’s like getting two planes.” Pilots could make transatlantic round trips in one day. That would “save a lot of money in Marriotts,” he said.
He said $200 million is the real price, noting “We don’t play that game,” with Boeing and Airbus both heavily discounting their list price
Scholl repeatedly noted that American, United and Japan Air Lines have all placed preliminary orders for aircraft. He said the three made “meaningful, non-refundable deposits” but would not disclose the amounts. He also acknowledged that “everything is cancelable.”
United said in 2021 that it will purchase “15 of Boom’s ‘Overture’ aircraft once Overture meets United’s demanding safety, operational and sustainability requirements, with an option for an additional 35 aircraft. The companies will work together to meet these requirements prior to delivery.” It has not updated the statement.
When asked how long it would take for the Federal Aviation Administration to approve the plane, Scholl noted that the fastest FAA certification ever took 14 months. “That’s in the timetable” that would allow Boom to produce an airplane within three or four years, he said.
While it all sounded unrealistic, the backdrop was the new factory being built on schedule, along with Boom’s ability to maintain the support of North Carolina’s top leaders, a Democrat and a Republican, who disagree on many issues.
Scholl also said that the last American start-up company to build a viable airplane was the Douglas Company, founded in 1921. Maybe it’s time for someone else to try.