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American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

boomsupersonic.com

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Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#251

If Boom is able to come out with a new supersonic aircraft, is it possible for a startup to compete with Boeing or Airbus in subsonic aircraft? Either coming up with a new design or another innovation that can compete. Or, are those companies pretty much set with impassable moats?

Unless Boeing or Airbus screw up financially, which is almost impossible, the duopoly is set in stone. It will take massive government backing to change that, Airbus itself is proof of that. The only parties that do challenge the big two on single aile jets are Bombardier and Embraer, one of which was bought by Airbus and one which was almost bought by Boeing.

I disagree. The disruption can happen as many routes transition to electric. Boeing and Airbus might wait for to long.

There are already new companies doing short-distance electric passenger flight. These companies could well scale to longer distance flights.

You could also imagine a company like Tesla getting in that business as well.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it was never a turbo prop. You'll never get a propeller driven aircraft to supersonic speeds.

And if you try you end up with monstrosities like the XF-84 Thunderscreech https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-84H_Thunderscreech

Even if your aircraft doesn't come close to the speed of sound, the tips of the propellers will, leading to insane amounts of noise. The Russians, as they are prone to do, didn't care and did it anyways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do too, but I also don't have a huge amount of experience sitting in an incredibly comfortable first class seat. I imagine I'd get a lot more done than I do in coach. I think if I had a decent internet connection (happening more and more) and comfortable seat I'd happily take a 7/8 hour flight over a 5 hour one in a coach-style seat.

I fly first class a fair bit, and I struggle to get anything done on the plane (in the terminal is fine, though). For me, there's no way to take a good break on a plane. I can't really get up and stretch my legs (unless you try to pace the aisle), and any kind of distraction is going to be on a screen. It is more comfortable than coach, but it's still not really comfortable. Coach is actively uncomfortable, first cla…

I fly business a few times a year and almost always treat it as rest and relaxation. The chance for quiet downtime that I won't get on the trip and rarely get at home as well. 10 hours of extra sleep, reading, and podcasts. It seems like most passengers do the same thing. Trying to smash actual work into the flight is miserable.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#254
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> coach class all the way Has there been a render of the interior or something?

There is on the Boom site, and it certainly doesn't look like regular cattle class https://boomsupersonic.com/static/images/overture-experience...

Yes and pre-launch renderings of the interior of the Dreamliner featured a piano bar and all-round led screen walls.

Interior buildout in planes is always at the discretion of the airline, and the concepts shown by manufacturers should not be taken as realistic.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#255
Mhh, whenever I heard about them, I looking at their current successes. Did they not promise to launch a sub-scale supersonic plane to test out everything? It has still not flown unless I have missed something.

So why should I trust that their main airliner is anywhere even close to on-time.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. At this point a new aircraft program is easily $15B+ of development. That kind of money is hard to come by for a new aviation company. China, Russia, and Japan have all tried breaking into the market as well without much success.

Why aren't the Chinese and Russians successful at building airliners? International politics aside, they have workable products, so why can't they break into the duopoly.

Workable != competitive, and in an industry as cutthroat in aviation airlines want the absolute best in fuel efficiency and reliability to undercut their competitors by $5.

There are other commercial aircraft manufacturers but essentially in each size segment you will only see two players. Embraer doesn‘t make any direct competitors with Airbus or Boeing, as an example.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. At this point a new aircraft program is easily $15B+ of development. That kind of money is hard to come by for a new aviation company. China, Russia, and Japan have all tried breaking into the market as well without much success.

Why aren't the Chinese and Russians successful at building airliners? International politics aside, they have workable products, so why can't they break into the duopoly.

Duopoly markets can be surprisingly efficient in some circumstances, so it may not be profitable for other firms to enter the market.

https://inomics.com/terms/bertrand-competition-1504578

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#258
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is there a synthetic fuel plant with zero impact at any scale already? No, this is just wasting more fuel for the heck of it cool, so you're on board with nuclear + hydro as a more sustainable base load solution than lithium-based batteries

Lithium based batteries don't produce power.

Did replygirl say they did? To my reading they are talking about using batteries to store and deliver baseline energy from intermittent sources like wind and solar.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#259
post #212
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boom were previously targeted a cruising speed of Mach 2.2, I wonder why they lowered it to Mach 1.7 with the latest design update. Might be related selecting an engine. The previous version of the design had a fantasy engine that didn't exist (I think the specs came from a military engine that they couldn't use due to export restrictions), but now they are working with Rolls-Royce, and appear to have actually select…

Export restrictions are not just messing cryptography!

Maybe military engine control systems work by sending PGP-encrypted emails to the fuel valves?

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#260
post #59
post #9

Not a lot to go on here. Boom projects first flight in 2026 for the Overture. They seem to be fairly close to first flight with their XB-1, but it has not flown yet. I congratulate them on getting funding, but all the hard parts are ahead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_XB-1

By 2026, with the typical delay till 2028 they’ll face the prospect of Earth-2-Earth starship flights

Given that Starship hasnt even had its first unmanned orbital test flight yet, getting man rated and ready for commercial flights by the general public within 4-6 years seems unlikely.
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