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Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

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Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#101

Post by jandrese »

kindatrue wrote: post #9
dylan604 wrote: post #6

I know nothing about Boom. Why is this impressive? We've achieved supersonic for passengers before. Are we meant to be interested just because someone is taking up the mantle again, or is there some new design that makes it impressive?

Previously Boom's CEO said this: “That’s not travel, that’s like a thing you might hope to do once in a lifetime,” says Scholl, before adding, “Versus where we want to get, which is anywhere in the world in four hours for 100 bucks.”[1] Anywhere in the world in four hours for $100 USD really caught people's imagination and attention. I'm puzzled by how they will achieve this. [1] https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/bo…

New York to Sydney for $100 in 4 hours? My bullshit alarm is blaring. Unless they have a secret teleporter project they aren't telling people about. If you're burning dinosaurs to do that it is not happening, not unless oil becomes magically free and even then I think you would struggle to make ends meet.

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#102

Post by gpderetta »

jdblair wrote: post #29
hangonhn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I don't think that's correct. The Concorde used its afterburners during take off and to get through the transonic region, where the drag is very heavy. Once you've gone past that the drag drops. At that point the Concorde can turn off the after burners. Source: https://www.heritageconcorde.com/concorde-engine-re-heats

That's right, the Concorde had engines capable of supercruise - long distance supersonic flight without afterburners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercruise#Aircraft_with_supe...

IIRC Concorde could super cruise a Mach 2 which is unmatched. It would also flight supersonic for most of its journey which is also presented unprecedented difficulties.

It was really an unique plane.

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#103

Post by OnlineGladiator »

rbanffy wrote: post #50
talldayo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"in a long time" kinda doesn't matter to me. America hasn't built a supersonic bomber "in a long time", you'll have to excuse me for not caring. The value of such a weapon is dubious and only made sense in a hype-laden Cold War environment. Similarly I don't think we've learned the lessons of the Concorde yet. Not only do people not need hypersonic flight, it's going to create a premium class of hydrocarbon emissions…

> Not only do people not need hypersonic flight, We do. It takes me more than 14 hours and two flights to visit my son in Brazil. Even if there was a direct flight, it wouldn't be much less than that. At this time, very few people visit places more than 10 hours away from their homes. Knowing places faraway and different expands one's horizons. You learn that there are different ways of living, different ways of thin…

Are you willing to pay 10x the price for 1/2 the travel time? And even if you are willing to pay that, are there enough people besides you willing to pay that to sustain this business model?

I'd imagine most people in this wealth bracket would just fly private. I'll happily spend 5, 10, 15 hours in a plane if I don't feel like a sardine in a can.

The Concorde failed for a reason (actually multiple reasons). And they actually had an engine supplier - the hard part - whereas Boom has been shunned by the entire industry for this critical part.

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#105

Post by creer »

rbanffy wrote: post #53
bangaroo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as a person who likes airplanes (and airliners in particular,) i think it's cool that a commercially-focused aircraft manufacturer has managed to return to a type of flight that has primarily been relegated to military operations for a very long time today i am not thinking any further ahead than "wow, they did a really cool thing and made a supersonic test platform for a commercial airliner." there will be lots of f…

I can't wait to see NASA's one. What I really hope is Mach 2 at altitudes higher than the Concorde, in order to minimize sonic booms on land. Even if we never get to fly supersonic over land again, a Mach 2 plane that can cross the Pacific would be incredible.

The work to minimize or delete sonic boom - that's an important one. And it's a NASA project.

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#106

Post by stetrain »

foobarqux wrote: post #57
doctoring wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same question. From their FAQ ( https://boomsupersonic.com/faq ): > Will Overture use afterburners like Concorde? > No. Overture will fly without the use of afterburners, meeting the same strict regulatory noise levels as the latest subsonic airplanes. The airliner will be powered by the Symphony propulsion system. Symphony will be a medium-bypass turbofan engine designed and optimized for environmentally a…

> ... meeting the same strict regulatory noise levels as the latest subsonic airplanes Extremely dishonest: as far as I can tell (CFR title 14, B36.5) there are no specific noise level regulations for subsonic cruise flight (i.e. not take-off and landing) because you can't hear subsonic aircraft at cruise altitude. On the other hand, however, you will be able to hear sonic booms.

I think that statement is saying it will meet those noise levels for takeoff and landing, not during cruise which will be over the ocean.

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#107

Post by [deleted] »

ceejayoz wrote: post #89
double0jimb0 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The engine in XB-1 test plane is not the same that’s going in the production plane.

When the production engine exists in physical form, we can absolutely discuss its capabilities. The XB-1 demonstrator is, using afterburner to get to speed, demonstrating other design features intended to keep the noise down. The original plan was a commercial partner for the engines, but the big three - Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric - turned them down. It's one of the biggest remaining question m…

[deleted]

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#109

Post by drysine »

crowcroft wrote: post #92
mrtksn wrote: post #76

How cool is that, hopefully will pressure Airbus into developing one too. So far they did silly concept vides only. I'm also quite worried about Airbus after winning against Boeing becoming complacent since Chinese or Russians are not even close.

Airbus won't do anything until someone proves the economics of it make sense.

Won't do things like A380?

Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

#110

Post by jandrese »

ctippett wrote: post #56
EA-3167 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some interesting technological developments around fuel efficiency and minimizing the "sonic boom" that's felt on the ground. Neither of those killed Concorde though, because the entire idea of Concorde turned out to be incredibly faulty. MOST people weren't in such a hurry to get from point A to point B that they'd pay 5x-10x a normal business/first class ticket to cut a trip down by 50% or so. The intende…

On the live cast the presenter mentioned Boom have already secured ~130 pre-orders, including United Airlines. Not bad considering the Concorde anticipated 100+ orders but only manufactured a fraction of that.

Pre-orders are just wind until they're actually delivering product. It doesn't cost the carriers much to make the pre-orders. The calculation is that if it somehow pans out then they won't miss the boat, if the company fails then they aren't really out anything.

To be honest I thought Boom was an investor scam. I didn't think they would get this far. I still don't think they are going to build full scale production models and actually sell them, but I'll give them points for keeping it going. Moller kept his Aircar prototypes going for decades too though.

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