Overture schedule called into question by customer United
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has expressed doubts about Boom Supersonic’s plan to deliver the first Overture supersonic aircraft in 2029. In an interview on October 28, 2026, on the podcast Office Hours: Business Edition, Kirby called 2029 the company’s “official” deadline, adding that in his view it will not be met and that more time will be needed. Kirby also recalled that Boom has yet to overcome “many hurdles” in the aircraft’s development and FAA certification, stressing that clearing these hurdles is not guaranteed, while praising CEO Blake Scholl and the company. The statement follows a March assessment in which Kirby had put the probability of Overture entering commercial service at “50-50.”
United is among the early customers: according to the source material, Boom has conditional agreements with American Airlines, Japan Airlines and United that involve non-refundable deposits of an undisclosed amount and would allow the airlines to purchase Overture aircraft once commercially available. Kirby’s position therefore concerns a financial commitment the carrier has already made, but its terms and amount are not specified.
The idle Overture factory and the new turbine plant
The source material reports that Boom completed in 2024 the factory intended for Overture production at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, but that the plant has remained largely unused. This has raised questions among state officials, who had allocated more than $50 million in public funds for its construction. It is not stated whether or when production will begin.
Meanwhile, the company has shifted part of its focus to natural gas turbines to power data centers. On October 22, it inaugurated a plant in Centennial, Colorado, dedicated to producing a 42-megawatt turbine called Superpower. Boom aims to deliver the first turbines to data-center customers in mid-2027 and to increase annual production to 25 turbines in 2028 and 50 in 2029. The event was attended by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Colorado Governor Jared Polis, in a sign of the Trump administration’s support.
The source material links this diversification to a broader trend: many technology companies favor natural gas to launch their projects, and some data-center developers are turning to truck-mounted mobile generators or turbines derived from aircraft engines. The customers for Boom’s turbines are not indicated, nor are the sites that will receive the 250 MW of Superpower announced by Scholl for next year.
The lost deal and the industrial validation question
CEO Scholl acknowledged on September 25, in a post on X, the loss of a $1.25 billion agreement with data-center developer Crusoe, which was to have purchased 29 Boom turbines. Crusoe is described as involved in building data centers in Texas for Oracle, Google and Microsoft, powered by sources including natural gas and renewables. The source material does not clarify why the agreement was not completed.
Boom presents the data-center turbine as synergistic with the Symphony engine intended for Overture. During the October announcement, it said it had completed a prototype turbine core, called Sprint Core, intended eventually to power both the Superpower turbine and the Symphony engine. The core will be tested at the Colorado Air & Space Port, with first ignition planned before Thanksgiving. This is a concrete milestone, but it remains to be seen whether and when the company will be able to bring both activities to maturity: the 2029 timeline for Overture is disputed by its main customer, the turbine timeline is still only announced, and the Greensboro factory is not reported to be operational.
