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American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

boomsupersonic.com

11–20 of 531 posts

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#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 supersonic passenger travel economics work out it would certainly be hugely disruptive.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#12
post #6

Curious how the combination of remote work, videoconferencing, and the really luxurious business class / first class on sub-mach aircraft will compare to this. This is slower and smaller than concorde, so we'll see if the market really values speed over convenience / luxury. Boeing made the opposite decision 20 years ago when they cancelled the sonic cruiser.

There is no substitute for F2F for some types of work. Everyone I know hates flying, even if it is lie-flat. If someone can reduce the pain of flying to UK/Europe and Asia by knocking a few hours off then I would definitely prefer it.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#14

> American has paid a non-refundable deposit on the initial 20 aircraft. Pretty glad I don't own American stock right now, because they're apparently led by madmen.

It's phrased in such a way to give the idea that they've made a significant commitment, but it's entirely possible it was something like a 1% down payment.

This is almost certainly how it was done - and even the "fully refundable" deposits airlines make with Boeing, et al are going to have "fixed non-refundable costs" even just to handle the paperwork.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#15
post #6

Curious how the combination of remote work, videoconferencing, and the really luxurious business class / first class on sub-mach aircraft will compare to this. This is slower and smaller than concorde, so we'll see if the market really values speed over convenience / luxury. Boeing made the opposite decision 20 years ago when they cancelled the sonic cruiser.

Why would you assume this aircraft wouldn't have a luxurious cabin? It looks pretty nice from the one rendering they have on the site. 1-1 seating, so direct aisle access for all. Plenty of room.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#16

Overture is being designed to carry 65 to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7 over water — or twice the speed of today’s fastest commercial aircraft — with a range of 4,250 nautical miles. Optimized for speed, safety and sustainability, Overture is also being designed to fly more than 600 routes around the world in as little as half the time. Flying from Miami to London in just under five hours and Los Angeles to Honolulu in t…

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

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#17
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…

Concorde also didn't work out for management reasons and generated most revenue right before retirement when they they finally lowered ticket prices and stopped flying them half empty like the absolute idiots they were.

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#19

How is the fuel efficiency of these? They go faster, but I assume they would also fly higher where the air is thinner. Does it cancel out?

Adding to the supersonic questions - how will they deal with the sonic booms? I assume they're still banned over land, which significantly adds to travel time?

Re: American Airlines agrees to purchase Boom Supersonic Overture aircraft

#20

Overture is being designed to carry 65 to 80 passengers at Mach 1.7 over water — or twice the speed of today’s fastest commercial aircraft — with a range of 4,250 nautical miles. Optimized for speed, safety and sustainability, Overture is also being designed to fly more than 600 routes around the world in as little as half the time. Flying from Miami to London in just under five hours and Los Angeles to Honolulu in t…

How are they doing this with sustainable energy?
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