Fly From London To Dubai In 4 Hours Because Supersonic Jets Are Coming Back

US-based Boom Technology aims to reduce flight time from Dubai to London or Abu Dhabi to Sydney by half when its supersonic passenger jet starts commercial operation.

Its XB-1, which is expected to start test flights by next year, will connect the GCC to the rest of the world much faster than conventional airliners.

Now, it takes 7:50 hours to fly from Dubai to London and 14 hours to fly from Abu Dhabi to Sydney, Boom Technology’s founder and chief executive Blake Scholl said, adding that XB-1, which is dubbed as ‘Baby Boom’, will reduce the time to 4:32 hours and 8 hours, respectively.

The first test of the supersonic plane is under construction and first passenger flights are expected to begin by 2023, Scholl said during a presentation at Dubai Future Foundation.

Nearly 10% of 500 global routes for supersonic travel are expected to originate from the Gulf, Scholl said.

It has to do with geography as it is not clear if you can fly supersonic much over land in most parts of the world and so the Gulf is ideally positioned for lots of routes largely over water, he said.

If you fly from Gulf to New York or Sydney you are over water most of the time, Scholl said, adding it’s a great place to connect supersonic traffic even more so than sub-sonic.

Though Boom received a $33 million funding for its XB-1 prototype in March, Scholl ruled out plans to raise funds from UAE-based companies.

The firm is funded today all the way through the first flight of our first airplane, he said adding it is focused on talking with customers and on getting that first airplane in the air.

Scholl said the cost of flying in the 55-seater jet will be equivalent to current business class rates, but prices will drop over the time when bigger capacity jets will be launched, making it more economical.