American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft • Hacker News Board

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#291

Post by credit_guy » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

mmaunder wrote: post #262

Burning more Jet-A to get less people around the world faster has got to be the most tone deaf idea this decade. I'm a pilot, I just attended Airventure, and I love the history around SR-71, Concorde and the other incredible high speed planes we've built. But this is an idea that had its time and aviation has moved on to high bypass turbofan engines, reliability, safety, fuel efficiency and reducing our environmental…

> to get less people around the world faster

What does “less people” mean? You mean Boom is targeting only the ultra-rich? That’s not their aim. They aim to make supersonic flight both possible and affordable.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#292

Post by everybodyknows » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

sonthonax wrote: post #180

bobthepanda wrote: post #150

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.

> they have workable products

Not so, not for Russia anyway:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Superjet_100

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#293

Post by replygirl » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

alex_young wrote: post #258

tgv wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

this

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#294

Post by potatolicious » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

neither_color wrote: post #241

JCM9 wrote: post #11

Strong FOMO settling in. Premium transatlantic routes routes like NYC-LHR are super important to the bottom line of the big legacy carriers. If one airline has supersonic and others don’t that could be a huge blow to the others. Of course things didn’t work out that way with Concorde, which was not commercially successful and more of a spectacle than something founded in business fundamentals. But if Boom can make su…

My personal hypothesis is that Asian and cross-Pacific traffic has grown considerably in the decades since Concorde was flying and I look forward to wealthy eastern markets keeping the supersonic market viable. If American and United don't figure it out I could see a gulf country carrier or Singapore Airlines making it work. I haven't looked into profitability yet but a quick look at the list of busiest routes shows…

Agree that this would be important except that there's basically ~no work being done on supersonic trans-Pacific flight. Boom's design doesn't have the range to operate trans-Pacific, and AFAIK there has never been any supersonic passenger aircraft (built or designed) that has had the range to pull it off.

I do agree though, LHR-JFK holds very little fascination for me. It's a relatively short flight with a lot of ground-side overhead time, so the benefits of Going Very Fast seem pretty minimal. The prospect of SFO-HND or LAX-ICN very fast though seems a lot more appealing.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#295

Post by yardstick » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

mshook wrote: post #237

cjrp wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems doable if the schedule was tweaked though? LHR 9:30AM - JFK 8:25AM, JFK 1:30PM - LHR 10:15PM

You're right but I'm sure both companies had good reasons for their schedules (for instance noise restrictions at night). And realistically, from your plane at JFK to Manhattan, that's got to be a least an hour and a half (immigration and cab/limo). And assuming you'd have to be at JFK just an hour before your flight (and for an international flight that's ballsy), plus with transportation still taking an hour, you j…

I expect operators would arrange dedicated/express facilities for all the airport stuff to speed up the experience. Dedicated/priority check-in, security, immigration. What would be the icing on the cake is an express train from the airport to the city centre that runs every 10-20 minutes (for all passengers prepared to pay, not just supersonics).

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#296

Post by tshaddox » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

metadat wrote: post #244

Rackedup wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When reading the original title, I had the impression that the company was going to be acquired by AA. Same... at least they should put an S to aircraft... but then again maybe they hit the strict character limit...

The plural of aircraft is still "aircraft".

Could go with "airplanes" which has a more conventional plural form and is much simpler and clearer in cases like this where we know full well what specific type of aircraft we're talking about.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#297

Post by mpweiher » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

mmaunder wrote: post #262

Burning more Jet-A to get less people around the world faster has got to be the most tone deaf idea this decade. I'm a pilot, I just attended Airventure, and I love the history around SR-71, Concorde and the other incredible high speed planes we've built. But this is an idea that had its time and aviation has moved on to high bypass turbofan engines, reliability, safety, fuel efficiency and reducing our environmental…

In the GA segment, the Pipistrel Panthera is really interesting.

With the currently available conventional engine, it vastly outperforms the Cessnas and Cirruses, AFAICT.

So with the hybrid and pure electric options in development (these were planned from the start, so the plane is designed for them), it is still competitive.

https://www.pipistrel-aircraft.com/products/general-aviation...

(Not affiliated or associated in any way, just a fan of aviation innovation)

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#298

Post by ucha » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

To everyone saying this will not work because it's more expensive... jets were more expensive than turboprops. And even though the former use more fuel, we prefer them.

The costs of flying an airplane isn't proportional to its fuel usage. The faster an aircraft is, the more flights it can perform per day.

The carbon emissions impact of flying a gas-guzzling supersonic aircraft aren't evident either. Of course, more gas is used per trip but fewer planes need to be manufactured. Since there is no supersonic business jet, it could also make sense for some people who used to fly private for the speed and convenience to reconsider as they may get faster to their destination by flying supersonic.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#299

Post by foo92691 » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

mmaunder wrote: post #262

Burning more Jet-A to get less people around the world faster has got to be the most tone deaf idea this decade. I'm a pilot, I just attended Airventure, and I love the history around SR-71, Concorde and the other incredible high speed planes we've built. But this is an idea that had its time and aviation has moved on to high bypass turbofan engines, reliability, safety, fuel efficiency and reducing our environmental…

Agreed. Boom claims they will be "sustainable" because they are going to invent some kind of synthetic biofuel.

Wait, it looks like I either misremembered that claim, or they have backed away from it:

> "Overture’s fleet will be able to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuels."

https://boomsupersonic.com/sustainability

Color me skeptical. Making existing aviation more climate-friendly would be a much more worthy goal than this ridiculous supersonic vanity project.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#300

Post by MaxikCZ » Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

cannaceo wrote: post #264

ISL wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rich people value time highly. Coach-class that gets you somewhere quickly can be worth a lot more than first-class that takes twice as long.

As someone who flies first class there is no way I'm flying coach to save time. Flying business is about the lounges, the meals, the service, and the ability to stretch out your legs.

If you value that over speed, why not take a oceanic cruiser? More lounges, more service, you can stretch your legs way more (or take a swim), better meals (and more of them)..

Its always a tradeoff of comfort vs speed.