Japan Airlines (JAL) has concluded a strategic partnership with Boom Supersonic, the U.S. firm that is seeking to develop a new-generation supersonic transport. The agreement formalises relations between the two companies which have been working together behind the scenes for over a year.

As part of the agreement, JAL has made a strategic investment of $10m in Boom and is providing its knowledge and experience as an airline to support Boom in developing the aircraft. JAL also has the option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft through a pre-order arrangement.

Boom says its 50-passenger, Mach 2.2 design will reduce typical New York to London flight times to just over three hours.

At this year's Paris Air Show, Boom announced an agreement with additive manufacturing specialist Stratsys to enable Boom to use Stratsys FDM-based 3D printing technology for production-grade aircraft parts and advanced composite tooling.

At that time, Boom said it hoped to fly its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator next year, one year later than announced when the project was publicly unveiled in November 2016.