For some, Ivanpah now stands as a huge, shiny monument to wasted tax dollars and environmental damage. For others, failures like this are a natural part of the race to find the winning solutions

Boom Supersonic passed a major milestone last month when its XB-1 prototype became the first civil aircraft to break the sound barrier over the continental US. Less than a month later, Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg has once again surpassed Mach 1 in the experimental plane while flying as high as 36,

Boom hopes its breakthrough will allow supersonic flights over land, making US coast-to-coast flights 90 minutes faster.

Boom Supersonic independently designed and built the XB-1, the first civil supersonic jet in America. The XB-1's first supersonic flight last month was a success, breaking the sound barrier above the Mojave Desert while producing a sonic boom that was inaudible from the ground.