Boom Supersonic has launched an unusual competition aimed at encouraging the development of small supersonic aircraft outside the traditional engineering departments of major aerospace manufacturers. Under The Boom Prize, the first amateur team to build a remotely piloted, air-breathing aircraft and fly it beyond the speed of sound in level flight could win a total prize worth $800,000.

However, simply crossing Mach 1 once will not be enough. Boom has established a series of requirements intended to prove that the entry is a genuine, reusable aircraft rather than essentially a projectile designed for a single record attempt.

The winning aircraft must achieve a true airspeed above the local speed of sound and maintain supersonic flight for at least five seconds. The entire acceleration from Mach 0.8 to above Mach 1 must take place in level flight or while climbing. In other words, diving and using gravity to accelerate through the sound barrier is not permitted.

After the supersonic flight, the aircraft must land in a controlled manner and then take off again on the same day to repeat the achievement while flying in the opposite direction. Refuelling and minor repairs are permitted between the two flights, but major components such as the wings, fuselage, engine or flight-control computer may not be replaced. Both attempts must take place between sunrise and sunset on the same calendar day and in the presence of the judging panel.

Another particularly interesting restriction concerns the aircraft itself. Maximum permitted take-off weight is just 25 kilograms, including fuel. The entry must be a fixed-wing aircraft in which aerodynamic surfaces generate lift, while its propulsion system must use atmospheric air.

Turbojet, turbofan and ramjet engines, as well as combinations of these technologies, are permitted, while rocket engines and propulsion systems carrying their own oxidiser are explicitly prohibited. Boom is therefore seeking to prevent the comparatively simpler solution of briefly accelerating a small aircraft to supersonic speed using rocket propulsion.

Although the aircraft may incorporate a high degree of automation, a human remote pilot must remain capable of immediately taking control and terminating the flight throughout the entire mission. The achieved speed will also not be verified using GPS data alone. Boom requires a calibrated pitot-static system and total-air-temperature measurement, sealed data logs and GPS telemetry, with flights in opposite directions helping to minimise the influence of wind on the final result.

The prize consists of $750,000 in cash and an additional $50,000 worth of Boom equity. There will be only one winner – the prize will go to the first team that successfully fulfils all requirements in front of the judges. The organisers have also indicated that the prize pool could increase in the future through the involvement of additional sponsors.

Importantly, intellectual property rights for the developed aircraft remain with its creators. Boom receives the right to use participants’ names, footage and data confirming the achievement, but the team retains ownership of its technical solutions. The company openly states that the people who first solve the challenge of building such a small, reusable supersonic aircraft could uncover new technical insights with potential value for the wider aerospace industry.

The competition is deliberately limited to amateurs. Participants must be individuals or teams consisting of U.S. citizens or permanent residents, while companies cannot enter as competitors. Venture-capital financing, corporate sponsorship, institutional investment and government funding are prohibited. Personal funds, private donations and crowdfunding are permitted, provided that contributors do not receive equity, intellectual property rights or control over the project in return.

Most of the aircraft must be built by the team itself, with participants expected to demonstrate this through photographs, receipts and build records. Commercially available engines, servos and avionics may be used, but purchasing a ready-made military or other target drone and adapting it to comply with the competition rules is not permitted.

Professional aerospace engineers may also participate, but only in a private capacity, without using their employer’s equipment, facilities, funding or confidential information.

The judging panel reflects the ambitions of the project. Judges include NASA Administrator and private astronaut Jared Isaacman, former Boeing chairman and CEO Phil Condit, who led the development of the Boeing 777, SpaceX co-founder and Impulse Space founder Tom Mueller, and astrophysicist and well-known spaceflight communicator Scott Manley.

Boom links the idea to a long tradition of prize competitions that have accelerated technological development in aviation. The company specifically points to the $25,000 Orteig Prize, won by Charles Lindbergh with his nonstop New York–Paris flight in 1927, the Kremer Prize, which stimulated the development of human-powered aircraft, and the Ansari X Prize, which helped accelerate privately developed crewed spacecraft in the early 2000s.

Boom now wants The Boom Prize to play a similar role in the development of small supersonic aircraft. According to the company, no remotely piloted, air-breathing aircraft has yet completed a supersonic flight under the conditions established by this competition.

The competition follows Boom’s completion of the XB-1 technology demonstrator programme in early 2025. The aircraft broke the sound barrier for the first time on January 28, 2025, while during its final, 13th test flight on February 10 it reached Mach 1.18 at an altitude of 36,514 feet. Following completion of the programme, XB-1 was retired and Boom shifted its focus toward development of the Overture passenger aircraft.

Under current plans, Overture is intended to become a new-generation supersonic passenger aircraft, while Boom already holds orders and commitments from American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines. The company is also developing its own Symphony engine for the aircraft.

The Boom Prize is therefore not a competition to develop a miniature version of Overture. Rather, its purpose is to see whether a relatively small and independent team can find new solutions to some of the most difficult challenges of supersonic flight – from transonic aerodynamics and propulsion to flight control, structures and the safe recovery of the aircraft.

As Boom summarises the idea behind the competition: after XB-1 demonstrated what a relatively small professional team could achieve, the company now wants to see what can be created – in a garage.