American Airlines places order for supersonic jets that will be made in Greensboro

American Airlines has placed an order for at least 20 supersonic jets that are planned to be built in the Triad through a deal with Boom Supersonic.

American Airlines says it will buy 20 Overture jets with an option to purchase 40 more. It's designed to carry as many as 80 passengers and travel nearly twice the speed of sound. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Boom says the program will cost between $6 and $8 billion.

Keith Debbage is a geographer at UNC Greensboro who studies air transportation. He says the deal marks a significant vote of confidence in Boom. But he questions whether the startup can reach its goal of carrying its first passengers by the end of the decade.

“That's an incredibly aggressive timeline when you think that good ol' HondaJet — that's also at our airport — took just short of a decade to go from product design to selling the planes,” he says. “That's where my skepticism is probably the most severe, of the idea that somehow this thing will will be around in 2030.”

Colorado-based Boom Supersonic announced in January that it would build a manufacturing plant at Piedmont Triad International Airport. 

With the American Airlines deal, Boom says its orders and options now total 130 aircraft.