Boom Supersonic says its XB-1 aircraft achieved supersonic flight without an audible sonic boom on the ground below. CEO Blake Scholl hopes supersonic passenger flight will eventually be allowed in the U.

Boom Supersonic's XB-1 demonstrator plane just went supersonic in the skies over California's Mojave Desert, making it the first civil aircraft to break

Boomless Cruise is based on well-established physics known as Mach cutoff, in which a sonic boom refracts in the atmosphere and never reaches the ground. This effect is achieved by breaking the sound barrier at a high enough altitude, with exact speeds varying based on atmospheric conditions.

During the second supersonic flight of the XB-1 technology demonstrator today, the jet exceeded Mach 1 three times without a boom being detected by microphones on the desert floor below.

Boom CEO Blake Scholl confirmed that on January 28, the XB-1 successfully broke the sound barrier three times without creating an audible sonic boom. “We broke the sound barrier