Boom Supersonic is facing doubts about its supersonic airliner timeline as it shifts focus toward gas turbines for AI data centers. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said on the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast, which appeared on October 28, 2026, that Boom's official plan to deliver the first Overture airliner in 2029 "is not going to happen in '29." He said it "is going to take longer" and that Boom still has "a lot of hurdles to overcome" before FAA certification. Kirby earlier put the chances of Overture entering commercial service at "50-50," and he praised Boom CEO Blake Scholl and the company.
Boom unveiled a factory in Centennial, Colorado, on October 22 to produce a 42-megawatt natural gas turbine called Superpower for data centers. The company aims to deliver the first turbines to AI data center customers in mid-2027, ramping to 25 turbines in 2028 and 50 in 2029. Scholl acknowledged the loss of a $1.25 billion deal in which data center developer Crusoe would have bought 29 turbines, according to a post on X on September 25. He said Boom "will be delivering about 250MW of Superpowers next year to other sites" without naming those customers.
The Overture factory at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, has mostly sat dormant since it was completed in 2024. North Carolina provided more than $50 million in taxpayer funding to help build it. Boom plans to fire its Sprint Core turbine prototype for the first time before Thanksgiving at the Colorado Air & Space Port. Ars Technica reported that it reached out to Boom for comment.