Notably, Boom said, this is the first time an airline has actually made a financial commitment to supersonic aircraft before they've been available. Air France and British Airways technically pre-ordered the Concorde, but they didn't put any money down and had their costs heavily subsidized to the point where BA paid just £7 for its entire fleet.

The payoff for the investment is likely years away when Boom doesn't expect the first aircraft to enter service until 2023. However, it's understandable why JAL would be willing to take a chance on Boom so soon. For obvious reasons, many of its international flights are long -- Boom's jets could dramatically reduce that travel time for passengers willing to pay a premium.

Updated: The original image for this post -- which was sourced from Boom's own Medium page -- has been removed as it's a Photoshopped version of an existing jet manufacturing image.