Boom Supersonic, the company responsible for developing the worlds fastest airliner, known as the Overture, has announced that Scott Powell has been appointed as the Senior Vice President of Symphony.
Symphony is the name given to Boom’s very own propulsion system for Overture. Powell’s role at the company will be leading the development, industrialisation, certification and integration of Symphony.
Boom Supersonic & Symphony
The Symphony engine doesnt have a long history, with it being announced only back in December 2022.
The result of the Symphony engine coming to fruition is due to the lack of confidence and support from major engine manufacturers pulling out of the program including Rolls Royce and General Electric.
Boom’s new symphony engine will be designed in such a way that is perfect to fit the Overture’s needs.
As for some statistics on the engine, the company has published that the Symphony will be designed to deliver a 25% more time on wing. This refers to the engine being able to stay on the wing and not require regular maintenance for 25% more time compared to traditional engines at this time.
In addition, the Symphony will provide 10% operating cost savings thanks to its fuel efficiency.
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About Scott Powell
The addition of Scott Powell to the team in charge of developing the Symphony could be vital to making the production of this new engine successful.
Powell, currently has nearly 4 decades of experience in leading and assisting in the development of many engine programs over the years.
Some of these include working for 4 years as the Engineering Propulsion Leader for the Dreamliner, leading to the 787-8/-9 aircraft. In this role he was responsible for the design, development, test, build and business management of the propulsion system for the aircraft.
These engines are better known as the General Electric GeNX and Rolls Royce Trent 1000.
Furthermore, Powell has also seen experience in developing, qualification, certification and flight testing for engines used on the KC-46 Pegasus A2A Refuelling Tanker (Pratt & Whitney PW4000).
Adding to that he also helped in the same areas with the F35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program propulsion system.
His most recent involvement is with Rolls-Royce, where he was appointed as the Propulsion Integrated Product Team (IPT) Leader for the F130 engine (US military designation for the BR725), which will go on to be used on the B-52J Stratofortress.
Exciting development
With Scott Powell onboard for the engine development, Boom Supersonic expressed its excitement saying, “We’ve made significant design progress on Symphony” said Blake Scholl founder and CEO of Boom.
He added, “Adding Scott’s leadership and experience overseeing certifications for a wide range of civil and military propulsion systems only further strengthens our path forward with Symphony. We’re thrilled to have him onboard”.
Scott Powell also commented “Boom understands the significant upside that can be achieved through an engine specifically customised for Overture”, said Powell.
He continued, saying “I’m inspired by the considerable progress already achieved with Symphony, and I look forward to working with the team on the propulsion system that will power the future of sustainable supersonic travel”.
Boom’s latest update on the development of the Symphony was its release of their 3D printed 1/3 scale model of the engine at the Paris Air Show in June 2023.
Boom also revealed several other development milestones that had been hit in recent months showing great progress for the engine and now with Scott Powell onboard at the company, it seems development may gain some serious traction over the coming months.
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