The NFL’s Secret Obsession With Supersonic Flight
With dreams of permanent franchises in Europe, the league has quietly been keeping tabs on companies aiming to bring the technology back—and it could happen sooner than you think
- Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 jet completed a test flight, becoming the first civilian supersonic flight since the Concorde.
- The NFL is monitoring supersonic travel advancements, which could enable placing teams in Europe by reducing travel times.
- Boom Supersonic aims for its Overture commercial jet to carry first passengers by 2029, cruising at Mach 1.7.
Late last January, just a couple of weeks before the Eagles toppled the Chiefs in the Super Bowl inside a packed Superdome, a small crowd of observers gathered to witness an event with even greater significance for the future of the NFL.
On a crisp morning in California’s Mojave Desert, the skies cleared just enough for a jet to take off—and go supersonic.
The test flight of a plane called XB-1, developed by the company Boom Supersonic, became the first civilian jet to break the sound barrier since the Concorde. This was of particular interest to NFL executives who have spent recent years quietly monitoring the progress of Boom and other companies in this space, according to people familiar with the matter.
They knew that the return of supersonic travel could help make the league’s wildest fantasies come true.
Until now, the prospect of placing an NFL team—or perhaps an entire division—across the Atlantic had faced the seemingly insurmountable logistical hurdle of travel times. But cut those times roughly in half and that obstacle all but disappears: a supersonic flight from New York to London would take under four hours.
The idea of permanent NFL teams based in Europe in the next decade or so might seem far-fetched, but the league’s overseas ambitions have only intensified in recent years. London is now a mainstay on the calendar, and this season has seen the NFL make debuts in Dublin, Berlin and Madrid.
While the NFL doesn’t have firm plans to place any teams abroad or a concrete timeline, league officials have been keeping a close eye on the momentum behind commercial supersonic flights. Blake Scholl, the chief executive of Boom Supersonic, says he “shouldn’t comment on private discussions” with the NFL, but he believes it’s only a matter of time until the technology transforms America’s biggest sports leagues into truly global operations.
“It’s inevitable,” Scholl says. “The only reason they aren’t already is the speed of travel.”
Back when the Concorde zipped back and forth across the Atlantic, from 1976 to 2003, commercial supersonic travel was a daily reality. But rising costs and a disastrous Air France crash outside Paris in 2000 grounded the plane for good.
Now, Boom Supersonic is just one of the companies aiming to bring it back. It says it already has 130 preorders, including from several major airlines, with a goal of carrying its first passengers in its yet-to-be-completed commercial jet by 2029. Known as Overture, the aircraft is designed to cruise at Mach 1.7 on transoceanic routes, or twice as fast as today’s airliners. It also aims to go about 50% quicker over land.
The prospects for the return of commercial supersonic flight have also been improved by changes to regulatory restrictions. In June, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Federal Aviation Administration to repeal a half-century old ban on supersonic flight over U.S. land, contingent on reductions in sound.
“Advances in aerospace engineering, materials science, and noise reduction,” the order said, “now make supersonic flight not just possible, but safe, sustainable, and commercially viable.”
If supersonic travel is ultimately the tailwind that brings the NFL to Europe, it wouldn’t be the first time that evolutions in travel technology have spurred sports expansion. In Major League Baseball, the Dodgers and Giants only moved from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, after transcontinental flights became available and teams were no longer limited by rail times.
People familiar with the NFL’s thinking say that the concept of European expansion isn’t a front-burner issue right now. But the league remains intrigued by the potential return of supersonic travel by the end of the decade.
The NFL has to consider several other factors when it comes to placing teams in Europe, but meaningfully accelerating the travel time would be a significant one, the people said. Still, it isn’t just about finding speedy planes—they would also have to comfortably accommodate NFL traveling parties of around 200 people. The Overture is planned to carry only 60 to 80 people.
But even without permanent teams abroad, supersonic travel would make the NFL’s current international schedule smoother for the clubs hitting the road.
This season, for instance, the Los Angeles Rams adopted a highly unusual schedule to navigate the logistics of a game in Baltimore followed by another in London. After taking on the Ravens, they spent a week in Maryland and practiced at the Orioles’ ballpark before flying across the Atlantic the following Friday night to take on the Jaguars.
That’s nothing compared with what the Rams will deal with next season when they are slated to appear in the NFL’s first game in Australia as part of the league’s ever-expanding footprint. League officials have expressed a desire to play even more games abroad in the years to come, which not only grows the NFL’s popularity but also cultivates new potential time slots to drive up the value of media rights.
The technology that could help unlock all of that on the widest possible scale is still years away. It’s also arriving faster than you might realize.