Aircraft manufacturer Boom Supersonic announced plans Thursday to hire 500 people and open a new manufacturing plant near Centennial Airport. But the factory isn’t for its supersonic jets, which are expected to be used in commercial flights in 2030. Rather, the engine is the star. The engine technology developed for supersonic aircraft has found an alternative use as a natural gas turbine engine to power data centers without relying on the electrical grid — or water. Boom calls it Superpower. “The easiest way to overcome those problems is to enable data centers to make their own electricity and do it without a drop of water. That is absolutely what Superpower is about,” said Blake Scholl, Boom’s CEO and founder, during a news conference on Thursday at the company’s headquarters. “This is a 42-megawatt natural gas turbine that runs on that same supersonic technology, which means it’s used to being hot and it doesn’t need cooling water. Not a drop.”

Other data center water use news:

• Science, Public Health Policy and the Law: Blog: Inside hyperscale data centers: energy, water and health effects
• Data Center Knowledge: Blog: Can evaporative cooling in data centers still make sense?​​