Boom Goes Supersonic with AWS

December 1, 2020

Boom Supersonic, a Denver-based aviation company that is bringing commercial supersonic flight back to the skies, is going all-in on AWS. Boom Supersonic is leveraging the world’s leading cloud to provide the company with the virtually unlimited compute power, storage, security, and comprehensive set of services that it will take to reinvent supersonic commercial travel. The company is designing the first supersonic airliner in decades, called Overture, which will roll out in 2025, and will fly more than 500 transoceanic routes in half the time. For example, Overture will take passengers from Tokyo to Seattle in four and a half hours. Since its inception, Boom has leveraged AWS’s unmatched portfolio of services to accelerate the design and construction of its aircraft, including XB-1 – the demonstrator airplane for Overture and the world’s first independently developed supersonic aircraft – which Boom unveiled on October 7, 2020.

Supersonic aircraft require a precise combination of performance, structural stability, and safety that makes designing them both resource and time intensive. With an on-premises infrastructure, a design team would have to manage a large queue of design iterations running one after the other, to find the right balance. However, by tapping into the virtually unlimited scale of AWS HPC resources, Boom can run thousands of advanced computer simulations concurrently, far faster and more cost-effectively than ever before possible, resulting in an estimated 6x increase in productivity versus running these simulations in an on-premises environment. In order to refine its design, conduct stress tests, and simulate flight conditions for XB-1, Boom utilized more than 53 million compute hours on AWS with expectations to scale to more than 100 million compute hours in order to complete design and testing of its Overture airliner.

By going all-in on AWS, Boom is able to leverage AWS’s global infrastructure and unmatched portfolio of services to manufacture aircraft that meet security and compliance regulations while delivering on its commitment to sustainability. Boom plans to use AWS services, including capabilities in Internet of Things, machine learning, compute, storage, security, managed database, and analytics to build its 65-88-seat supersonic airliner and transform the flight experience for passengers. In addition, Boom’s 525 terabyte repository of XB-1 design and testing data will be stored in AWS, along with its core IT applications which will streamline the company’s operations so it can focus on innovation. Boom also plans to build a data lake for its manufacturing operations on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and use AWS IoT services including AWS IoT Core (a cloud service that lets connected devices easily and securely interact with cloud applications and other devices) to collect and process real-time data from its manufacturing equipment. Leveraging AWS analytics and machine learning services, Boom will gain deeper insights into its manufacturing processes to inform future decision-making, streamline workflows, and improve quality control.

In addition to developing its state-of-the art aircraft design, which promises to be the next major innovation in high speed air travel since jet airplanes were introduced more than 60 years ago, Boom also plans for Overture to be the most passenger-centric airliner in the world by offering passengers superior comfort, tranquility, and productivity. To support this development, Boom is exploring how AWS IoT and machine learning solutions can be used inside the Overture cabin to reimagine the on-board experience for both passengers and crew, looking at ways to customize passenger messaging, deliver intelligent in-flight entertainment, create wearables for crew members, and improve on-time departure performance using live occupancy and equipment data.

“Boom is committed to making supersonic flight mainstream by leveraging improvements in technology, sustainability, and passenger experience. As we build the first supersonic airliner in a new age of travel, AWS, the world’s leading cloud provider, will help us continuously refine our designs without compromise so that we can deliver a superior flight experience to the flying public,” said Blake Scholl, Founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic. “AWS’s proven infrastructure and unparalleled portfolio of services are helping us deliver a revolution in air travel.”

“Boom is taking a born-in-the-cloud approach to innovation and embracing the breadth, depth, and performance of AWS to reinvent commercial supersonic air travel,” said Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector and Regulated Industries at Amazon Web Services, Inc. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Boom to leverage the cloud to launch the next era of travel. By going all-in on AWS, Boom can innovate without bounds and more quickly than was previously possible, to make the world more accessible to everyone.”