Name: The same engine powering supersonic flight wants to power AI
Uploaded: 2025-12-28T18:17:44.892Z
Duration: 5 min 3 s
Description: Artificial intelligence and supersonic air travel have one thing in common.

Artificial intelligence and supersonic air travel have one thing in common.

Boom Supersonic is leveraging its advanced jet engine technology, originally developed for supersonic passenger aircraft, to generate electricity for AI data centers. The company claims its engines, designed to operate at high temperatures, offer advantages over traditional subsonic engines, particularly in hot and resource-scarce environments where many data centers are located.

Boom's ground-based turbine, SuperPower, shares most of its design with the Symphony aircraft engine, allowing for efficient manufacturing and technology transfer. The company expects to begin supplying power to AI customers in 2027 and plans to launch its Overture passenger jet within five years, using revenue and testing from the power sector to support its aviation ambitions.

The same engine powering supersonic flight wants to power AI

In the future when you use AI, the result may be powered by a supersonic jet engine. Power-hungry data centers are springing up around the country in response to the AI boom and the question of where to get enough energy to reliably run these data centers needs answers. Boom Supersonic claims to have an answer. The company is dedicated to bringing back air travel that's faster than the speed of sound. Boom recently retired its one-seat experimental aircraft, the XB-1, and is currently in the process of building its full-size passenger aircraft, Overture. But between the XB-1 heading to an aircraft museum and Overture taking flight with paying passengers, there's a lot of testing, research, and development that needs to be done, including on the aircraft's engines, which Boom is manufacturing itself in Colorado. But Boom wants to put its new engines to work inside more than just planes, and this is where the needs of the ballooning AI industry and the development of supersonic air travel come together. Doing the power turbine allows us to self-fund supersonic. AI data centers have already been using airplane engines as a power supply, and engine manufacturers often offer a version of their technology made to generate power on the ground. But Scholl says that Boom's new supersonic engines provide certain advantages over its subsonic competition, which are designed to work at much lower temperatures. So when you take one of these engines and you run it on the ground, say on a hot day in Texas, the only way to take a subsonic engine and have it literally not melt is to throttle it back and spray water in the intakes. AI data centers have been under scrutiny for the amount of resources they require, especially combined with the fact that they are often built in areas where those resources, like water, are scarce to begin with. But Boom's engine doesn't need water for cooling. At 30,000 feet going subsonic, the temperatures are minus 50. At supersonic flight, at 60,000 feet, Mach 1.7, the temperatures are 160 degrees. Because we're designed for 160 degrees Fahrenheit, 110, 115 in Texas is like no big deal. Boom's ground-based power turbine is called SuperPower, and its aircraft engine is called Symphony. Overall, they're almost identical, with a few key differences. Now let's get nerdy for a second here. Engines are really made of two what are called spools. There's an inner spool or high spool, sometimes called the core of the engine, which has a high-pressure compressor, a combustor, and a high-pressure turbine. Those between the ground engine and the flight engine are almost exactly identical. Literally we switch a little bit of fuel nozzles and combustor to go from jet fuel to natural gas. That's the only change. The rest of the design is exactly the same parts. The low spool, which basically takes the fan off the front that's there for the aviation application, replace it with two compressor stages, and then we add what's called a free-power turbine on the back, which is what takes the airflow that would be generating thrust in the air, and instead uses that energy to generate rotational energy that spins a generator that generates 42 megawatts of electricity. All in all, these machines are probably 80% the same, 100% the same manufacturing, 100% the same fundamental technology, and about 80% the same parts between the ground and the air. We've learned a lot from what we're doing on the ground that we'll be able to translate into a very reliable, very efficient engine for supersonic passenger flight. One of the most common critiques of the AI industry and its rapid growth is that the related increase in energy demand will also likely increase demand for fossil fuels, which many ground-based power turbines, including booms, run on. On the ground, these run on natural gas. That's methane. This is the same fuel that's used on the Blue Origin New Glenn, the same fuel that's used on Starship. I asked Scholl for his response to concerns about AI's impact on climate. A lot of the fears that we've had around climate have just not come to pass, and we need a future with all forms of energy. We need clean natural gas, we need solar, we need hydro. I'm really excited about everyone who's working on nuclear power. We need an energy-abundant future with all available sources, and I really believe that all forms of energy should compete on a level playing field. With superpower, AI data centers can tap into the power of supersonic jet engines so they're not overtaxing the grid, and Boom gets an opportunity to test its engine on the ground before putting it into planes and a financial bridge between its experimental aircraft and the one passengers may someday be able to fly on. It'll be the most tested new jet engine ever to carry passengers. Boom's engines are scheduled to start providing power to its first AI customers in 2027, and the company expects to start carrying passengers on its Overture aircraft in about five years. Recently, I had an opportunity to visit Boom's test site in Mojave, California, as the team was preparing to break the sound barrier with its XB-1 experimental aircraft. I interviewed the test pilot about what it's like to fly supersonic, and even got to test out the simulator myself. You can see whether I survived the landing by clicking here. Would you like to fly supersonic someday? Let us know down in the comments and subscribe for more stories that make you say, What the Future.

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