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Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

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

#121

Post by cromulent »

“Currently, all civil aircraft flights are prohibited from operating above Mach one speeds over land in the United States.” [1]

Mike Bannister’s excellent book Concorde talks at length about how “handsomely profitable” the BA service was (as opposed to the Air France one) from 1984 until the 2000 crash and subsequent grounding put them in to a spiral where keeping enough people certified was too expensive.

One part of this profitable change in 1984 was surveying their customers (who typically did not book their own tickets) to see what they thought the price was. About $5000 was the perception. It was actually $3000, so they quickly raised the price to the perceived one.

https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ap...

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

#122

Post by echoangle »

actionfromafar wrote: post #113
echoangle wrote: post #27

Why are some camera shots so dull? Is that a HDR problem?

Long tele lens - lots of air between it and the plane, I'd say.

It was actually fine for the air-to-air shots but all shots from the ground/drones were very washed out.

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

#123

Post by teractiveodular »

EA-3167 wrote: post #32
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?

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…

There were enough passengers, and flying the Concorde actually became profitable for the airlines once they figured out they just needed to charge through the nose for it. This was despite prodigious fuel consumption and that fuel becoming much more expensive after the oil crisis.

The main problems were that the requirement to only fly supersonic over water massively limited the possible routes it could fly, and that actually flying in a Concorde was not very comfortable (cramped, tiny windows, hot, vibration etc). Boom promises to tackle both of these, which will open it up to far more routes.

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

#125

Post by bluescrn »

16bytes wrote: post #63
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?

They're betting that they can make supersonic travel sustainable and profitable with a new aircraft and engine design. The Concord wasn't either of those. The business case is apparently solid enough that several airlines are partnering with them during development. This is the first actual demonstration that they can achieve supersonic flight in their demonstrator aircraft, so it is a significant milestone but they…

I suspect it'll only ever be a toy for billionaires.

For the rest of us, isn't air travel supposed to be something we're giving up/ramping down due to climate change?

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

#126

Post by tastyfreeze »

drysine wrote: post #109
crowcroft wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Won't do things like A380?

More of the same but bigger? While it is a feat of engineering to make an aircraft the size of an A380 it is essentially the same design as every other commercial airliner, not revolutionary.

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

#128

Post by EA-3167 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #90
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…

> Who are these people who wouldn't rather take a sleeping pill or futz around on their laptop instead? Me. Time is time. A lay-flat seat intercontinental is already $10+ k within weeks of departure, point to point. Not having to plan around sleeping on the plane or whatnot makes international trips feel domestic.

I suppose the question is whether you feel like spending 3-5 times as much for the same flight, to save a bit of that time. Perhaps you would be, but I think you can understand how most wouldn't, even if they could. That is of course assuming that unlike Concorde, this can do single-hop journeys longer than a trans-Atlantic flight.

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

#129

Post by thereddaikon »

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?

Concorde was a large program backed by two governments and designed and built by nationalized aerospace companies. This is a strictly private affair, so no tax dollars behind it, just private funds. The end goal is also to be much more efficient than Concorde, which was a pretty brute forced effort which multiple large afterburning engines. They hope to make the production model capable of supercruise.

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

#130

Post by adastra22 »

creer wrote: post #87
bangaroo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there hasn't been supersonic civil aviation, as far as i am aware, since the concorde was grounded. there are no active commercial aircraft capable of going supersonic. this is significant because it's the first civil aircraft to reach that milestone since the ending of the concorde program.

There has not been supersonic civil aviation but "supersonic" is not the interesting point here. "Supersonic" is easy and solved often in aviation. The question is what else can they do to make it work. And there is no aircraft yet, just a scale model. Progress sure but not because "supersonic". The new engine would be more interesting. And how is this a civilian aircraft? It is a cool one-off single seater with thre…

Supersonic is “easy” in the sense that rocket design is “easy.” Orbital rockets were still out of reach of non-government-funded efforts until SpaceX, and supersonic flight is still the sole domain of government contractors now. Boom is changing that.
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