US aviation company Boom Technology, which is developing a supersonic airliner scheduled for first flight in 2025, has picked Amazon Web Services as its design, development and manufacturing platform. Boom has built its own bespoke solution using AWS compute, IoT, AI and machine learning, supercomputing, database, and data lake technologies.

Supersonic aircraft development is resource and time intensive. With AWS HPC resources, Boom has run thousands of computer simulations concurrently, resulting in an estimated six-fold 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 utilised 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.

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. The company’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.

The company 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.

To provide Overture passengers with superior comfort, tranquility, and productivity, 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 customise 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.”