When Boom's Overture enters service, it will mark the return to commercial supersonic flight in more than 25 years. However, it will also mark the first time in more than 25 years that a pilot will have to think supersonically.

In the months leading up to its rollout, one of Boom's most complex challenges might not be in the wind tunnel, but in the cockpit.

The Challenge of Certification

Unlike any existing airliner, Overture will cruise near Mach 1.7 over water, twice the speed of the Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s widely flown today. This leap creates a unique certification challenge: no modern civilian type rating exists for supersonic flight. This means that Boom must work with the government to adapt frameworks originally written for subsonic transport aircraft to apply to its supersonically-capable fleet.

Creating this type rating means designing a full curriculum — ranging from ground school to simulator profiles — to flight training sequences that prepare pilots for the unexpected. 

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