One of the biggest airlines in the world has made a sizable wager on Boom, a startup developing supersonic aircraft. American Airlines revealed on Tuesday that it had recently agreed to buy 20 Overture aircraft from Boom, with the possibility of buying an additional 40 aircraft if everything goes according to plan. The agreement, which surpasses United Airlines’ prospective 50-jet pledge from last year, represents one of the greatest demonstrations of support for Boom to date. That is all for a startup that has not yet created a flight-ready passenger aircraft.

Boom stated at the beginning of the year that it would construct a manufacturing facility near Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina. The business anticipates starting work on its “Overture Superfactory” later this year. Production is expected to begin in 2024, but the first finished jet from the plant won’t take flight until some time in 2026. Boom is yet optimistic about the future of Overture despite this. According to the corporation, the Mach 1.7 jet will be able to fly from San Francisco to Tokyo in around six hours and from Newark to London in under four. In addition, the business asserts that Overture would use only sustainable aviation fuels, making it a “net-zero carbon” aircraft.