bscholl

Will never forgetting getting marked down in that class for producing a square, when I was asked to produce a rectangle. "No, I meant a rectangle rectangle!"

Lol!

Thank you!

Actually, Concorde was too big: 100 seats. It worked NY/London but at ~$20k/seat they couldn't fill enough seats several times daily on other routes. Which means you can't have many airplanes, which means no economies of scale.

With 40 seats and business class prices, the Boom airplane works on many more routes, which means we can make a lot of airplanes and enjoy economies of scale.

Looking into the future, as fuel efficiency further improves, per seat costs come down, and it will make sense to make ever larger aircraft. It's a virtuous cycle that will eventually allow supersonic flight at economy prices.

There's computational fluid dynamics—which are very good today especially at supersonic conditions. Also, we have some design optimization tools we've built in-house which let us quickly explore many alternatives and zero-in on the best design.

Speed: Mach 2.2 is the fastest speed possible with known technology already accepted by the FAA. At that speed, you can have good takeoff performance (and comply with airport noise restrictions) and good cruise performance. We'd to build a faster V2 or V3, in due time.

Capital: I can't comment quite yet. (Sorry)

YC has been awesome and supportive in so many ways, far beyond money. 5 stars, would do again!! :-)

Really good questions. We aren't sharing the details of the technical design quite yet (but will have more to say as we approach first flight).

Regarding engines: our first prototype (1/3 scale) flies with an off-the-shelf GE engine. For the product airplane, we're taking an existing subsonic engine and adapting it for supersonic flight. (Sorry, I know that's vague—much more to say about this in due time.)

We're baselining an experience better than domestic first class. One seat on each side of aisle, so everyone gets a window and aisle. There's more footroom and more headroom than the typical first class on a 737 or A320.

But this is something airlines can customize.

Thank you! It's an idea whose time has come...

Thanks! :-)

Sonic boom physics are subtle and counter-intuitive. High level, you: (1) keep the airplane as small and light as possible (reduces total shock energy) (2) carefully shape the fuselage and wings, so the shocks don't combine as strongly

schwarrrtz and azernik nailed it.

Today's batteries don't store enough energy for long international flights. There are some battery technologies in the lab (Google Lithium-air batteries) that might make this feasible, but they're not ready yet. Yet alone proven safe to carry passengers.

As fans of speed, we want to bring supersonics to market as quickly as possible. So, we're only using core technologies that have flown on other airplanes and are accepted by regulators.

There's plenty of opportunity for radical innovation in V2 and V3 once V1 is working!

exactly

TBH we really don't want to lock people out. I was disappointed that I never got to fly Concorde, not even once, and we want to open this to everyone (eventually make it routine).

Brian Shul is a steely-eyed missile man. :-)

There's a lot of scorched earth in supersonics, since Concorde wasn't an economic success and the Boeing SST project was cancelled.

Since then, there has been research on 300 seat Mach 2.4-Mach 3 vehicles, but these are extremely challenging.

To make this happen and happen soon, you have to start much smaller than the established players usually consider. We're at 40 seats—that's the minimum economic size. Supersonics are hard, so it pays to start as small as you can and scale up over time.

It's complicated and unclear, unfortunately. We'll have to see how things unfold when the airplanes are flying.

We're teaming with existing and new airlines to bring aircraft into service.

Posted ticket prices are based on what's profitable for airlines with the efficiency and performance of the airplane. Airlines will set the final prices, but we hope they will make tickets as affordable as possible!

$5,000 isn't an "everyone every time" price, of course. But it's low enough for routine business travel. With more innovation (this is just V1!), we can improve fuel economy and reduce prices further.

Supersonics help most on long international flights. So that's the first focus. San Francisco - Los Angeles, so much time is spent on takeoff and landing that faster cruise doesn't help much. Hyperloop, self driving cars can help with these shorter trips.

As far as regulations, our first aircraft is much quieter than Concorde, and it will get quieter with future iterations. Altitude helps, but quieting the boom is mostly about nuances of aircraft shape.

Eventually, when you can get from San Fran to Tokyo faster than San Fran to New York, the rules will get updated.

Thanks! We are very excited to be doing this.

We're starting out focused on long flights that are mostly over water, like New York - London or San Francisco - Shanghai.

Around an airport, our airplane will be about as quiet as other new aircraft. The sonic boom will also be much quieter—and we'll continue to make future iterations even quieter. It's hard to say exactly when, but I expect the supersonic overland ban will be reversed in the coming years.

Unfortunately, there's a ban on supersonic travel over land in the US since the 1970s. When this is reversed, we can fly SFO-JFK in about 2:20.

We have the same gas mileage (fuel per seat mile) as a lay-flat bed in business class. Since the aircraft can do nearly 3X as many trips in the same time, on net it's better.

That's just the start of course—with more innovation on fuel efficiency the price and emissions both come down.

$5,000 is what a business class ticket NY/London costs today, and many business travelers are able to do that routinely. This compares to up to $20k on Concorde.

We will get the $5,000 way down over time—this is just the start.

Hi - I'm Blake, Founder/CEO at Boom. After watching no tangible progress in supersonics since Concorde was shut down, I started Boom because I want supersonic flight in our lifetime. Not just as a private jet, but something most anyone can afford to fly.

Will try to answer as many questions here as I can.

Yes, we've taken a lot of inspiration from what Elon has accomplished at SpaceX and Tesla. Supersonics are technically challenging and capitally intensive. But the world should have faster travel—and it doesn't look like the big aerospace companies are about to make it happen. (I'm a founder at Boom)

Good point. It's so sad that Concorde came and went without a replacement in place. (FYI, I'm a founder at Boom).

Exactly. Already, this is way more affordable than private jets or Concorde. We'll keep innovating on fuel efficiency, so prices can keep coming down.

This is what a scrappy airplane startup looks like in the early days. The wooden mockups validate sizing and ergonomics before you lay down expensive carbon fiber.

That's correct. We're starting with overwater supersonic because there's no regulatory barrier to launching service. You can make a much quieter sonic boom than Concorde, and eventually supersonic overland will be allowed.