Istudied aerospace because of the inspirational magic of the space shuttle program. Likewise, most women with aerospace degrees that I know were inspired by and now work on space-related projects instead of aviation. And for good reason. What has been inspiring in the commercial aviation sector in the past decade? In the past five decades? Commercial airliners have gotten some fancy interior upgrades, or more advanced avionics suites, or different shaped winglets. Nothing truly inspiring has happened in aviation in ages. Even Concorde, which introduced the world to commercial supersonic flight, underwhelmed. It was so expensive to fly that few people could benefit from its supersonic speed. Now it’s a museum piece. With this track record, a lack of interest in or passion for the aviation sector is understandable.

So then how do we get more girls into aviation? We need more inspiration. The industry needs to provide a mission to young women and girls, one that can get them excited to study math and science, to become an engineer, and eventually, to help balance out the gender ratio in the aerospace sector. This is especially important for young women because they are less likely to naturally find that mission in their upbringing. Boom can be that mission.

Boom is not just designing a new airplane. We’re tearing down the barriers to experiencing the planet.

At Boom, we want to change not just the aviation industry, but how the world views travel and distance. We want to bring back commercial supersonic flight not just to save time, but to connect people and places and cultures. Our aircraft shaves days off overseas travel. Imagine what that will do for families when parents can travel for work but still be home in time to tuck their children into bed at night. Imagine the possibility of falling in love across continents, or vacationing in Australia because it’s now as accessible as Hawaii.

Boom is not just designing a new airplane. We’re tearing down the barriers to experiencing the planet. We only want to hire people who want to change the world, so female engineers who are passionate about our mission are perfect hires for us. Our job as a company is to inspire them enough to get them to apply.

Recently, Boom participated in a STEM event at a local aviation museum. This event was targeted towards girls aged 10–17, and provided a diverse range of activities across engineering and science disciplines to introduce girls to potential career or degree fields. We held two workshops focused on the basics of flight and aircraft design by building and testing balsa wood gliders. It’s usually hard to judge what impact our company’s participation in such an event has immediately. But at the end of one of our sessions, three young girls came up to me to tell me that they wanted to be engineers too.

My hope is not only that Boom will soon far outperform the industry in gender balance in engineering, but that we can inspire the next generation of female engineers to pursue a career in aerospace, the same way that Space Camp inspired me, and the Space Shuttle inspired so many others. Somewhere out there is a little girl who will be inspired by the work we do today. I can’t wait to get her resume for an engineering position in 10 or 20 years as we ramp up work on our first Mach 4 airliner.