Boom Supersonic Cuts Drill Guide Costs by 92% With Stratasys FDM

Boom Supersonic Cuts Drill Guide Costs by 92% With Stratasys FDM

Boom Supersonic is using Stratasys FDM 3D printers to manufacture assembly drill guides for its Overture supersonic jet program. The company says the switch from traditional machining to additive manufacturing cut costs by 92% and trimmed lead times from weeks to days.

Drill guides are simple-looking fixtures that tell a machinist exactly where to place a hole. Getting them wrong on an aircraft program is expensive. Getting them fast matters even more when you are trying to hit a flight schedule.

The XB-1 demonstrator, which first flew in 2020 and retired in 2025, gave Boom Supersonic the data it needed to move to Overture. The company is now racing to certify the larger airliner, and every hour saved on tooling is an hour closer to first flight.

Stratasys FDM parts are not typically associated with aerospace tooling, but Boom Supersonic found the material properties and dimensional accuracy met the requirements for jigs and fixtures. The ability to iterate on a design overnight instead of waiting for a machinist to cut a new part changed how the team worked.

The 92% cost reduction is not just a marketing number. It reflects the difference between CNC machining a block of aluminum and printing the same geometry in nylon or carbon-filled nylon with almost no material waste. For a program burning through cash, that is a real advantage.