Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

boomsupersonic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 531 posts

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#381

Post by runarberg »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #343
kubb wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to go everywhere, really. Especially not halfway round the world for a vacation.

This reasoning can be used to also say you don’t need to go anywhere outside of your living area. Without removing freedom of mobility, the only way we have to mitigate environmental costs is through price pressures which could be used to fund net neutral technologies.

The difference between not traveling and a 15 hour flight is huge (especially if you have a family those 15 hours away). But the difference between 15 hour flight and 8 hour flight is marginal in that context. And this is compounded by the fact that there are some regions which are geographically closer then Australia, but take significantly longer to travel to because they lack the infrastructure for fast and convenient travel. So honestly 15 hours is not that bad.

Yes, strictly you don’t need to travel anywhere, but we should allow people to travel in the most economical way feasible. Supersonic jet travel is not that.

If 15 hours in an economy class is too much for you, but you can afford a supersonic flight ticket, perhaps you should consider upgrading to a business class. Or if you don’t like that, consider braking the flight up in 2 or 3 parts sleeping at a nice hotel in between. This is a much more climate friendly option then a supersonic flight that only saves a few hours of your time.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#382

Post by nradov »

S201 wrote: post #355
zokier wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to illustrate how we're losing our lead in some critical areas How is single-engine piston aircraft a critical area? edit: I do note that according to 2019 report, North American companies had >60% global marketshare in both turboprops and business jets in terms of units shipped

> How is single-engine piston aircraft a critical area? Where do you think airline pilots come from? New pilots learn to fly in single-engine piston planes. And then again as flight instructors and commercial (non-ATP) pilots while building time to get their ATP rating and move onto the airlines. The continual slow death of GA is only going to worse an increasingly dire pilot shortage.

The pilot shortage (if there really is one) is almost entirely the fault of short-sighted airlines and their unions; it has little to do with GA manufacturers. If airlines really wanted a larger supply of ATP ratings then they could simply hire pilot candidates with little or no flight time, then pay them to go through training. Some large foreign airlines already recruit pilots this way.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#383

Post by indecisive_user »

stickfigure wrote: post #367
MaxikCZ wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The internet tells me that there is only one ocean liner left (Queen Mary 2), which travels only between the UK and the US east coast.

There's only one left because there is no demand for that kind of travel, which is good evidence that people value time over comfort.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#384

Post by brandmeyer »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #69
flerchin wrote: 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

Awkward... The website FAQs still say "XB-1 test flights are planned for early 2022."

Way more delayed than that. Once upon a time, they were planning on test flights in 2017. Then 2018. Then 2019. Then 2020. Etc.

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/boom-xb1-superson...

https://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/20/centennial-boom-supers...

https://www.flightglobal.com/strategy/paris-boom-xb-1-schedu...

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#386

Post by asdfadsfgfdda »

foo92691 wrote: post #301
credit_guy wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

According to their propaganda, they are going to make jet transport cheaper AND faster AND greener. I see no evidence that this is at all realistic, and a lot of evidence to the contrary. Do they even have a story explaining how their new supersonic jet could possibly reduce costs?

In theory, a faster airplane is more productive (fly passengers farther in the same amount of time). So crew and capex costs are lower per mile. Maybe a crew can fly New York-London and then fly back, vs a subsonic airliner with a crew that flies one way, stays a day for crew rest, then flies back.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#387

Post by maxwell »

stickfigure wrote: post #367
MaxikCZ wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The internet tells me that there is only one ocean liner left (Queen Mary 2), which travels only between the UK and the US east coast.

She's the only one in service right now, but looks to also currently depart from Australia, the Emirates, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Africa.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#388

Post by kubb »

s1k3 wrote: post #341
kubb wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to go everywhere, really. Especially not halfway round the world for a vacation.

The number of reasons people want to move around the worl are almost innumerable. Just because you don’t value it doesn’t mean others can’t.

The reason for op was getting to his vacation place faster, so I guess we were discussing 1 reason.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#389

Post by wmorein »

gbronner wrote: post #106
akmarinov wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only very expensive, but basically coach class all the way through, even for the rich people.

Concorde was not very pleasant to sit in from what I've heard. Great food, but the seats were basically economy 2x2.

This was something I always heard before I experienced it but the truth is it wasn't so bad. You definitely weren't sitting in a full First Class seat (which were smaller in any case back then) but it was still perfectly comfortable especially for the relatively short duration.

And because the overall experience was so cool -- board directly from the lounge, the led display showing how fast you were going, seeing the curvature of the earth (sorry flat earthers), arriving before you left, etc. -- you never thought about the seat. I'm sure if you took it all the time you might care but most people it was awesome.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#390

Post by cjbgkagh »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #377
cjbgkagh wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be mixed up; a turboprop has a propeller attached to the jet engine. No-one in their right mind would use a turboprop supersonically. It would make an insane amount of noise.

> a turboprop has a propeller attached to the jet engine. Since this is the pedant thread I feel obliged to point out that turboprops are propellers attached to gas turbine engines, not jet engines. Jet engines are gas turbine engines that produce thrust using a jet of hot exhaust gas out the back. Gas turbine engines that don't produce thrust using a jet of exhaust gas aren't jet engines; examples are turboprop engi…

That is true, I was restricting my vocabulary to avoid adding additional concepts.
Post reply on HN