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XB-1's wings are officially closed out

blog.boomsupersonic.com

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Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#131

Post by ksec »

gr2020 wrote: post #68

Somewhat OT - but from their FAQ they say they're targeting a price of $200M for the Overture. I'm certainly no expert, but this feels to some extent a bargain given the capability. Capacity 55-75 passengers. A few data points for comparison (all of these approximate of course, with multiple variants available of each): Airbus A220 - $90M Airbus A320neo - $110M Boeing 787 - $140M Boeing 777 - $320M Airbus A350 - $325…

>I'm optimistic for them - cutting your trip time in half is certainly something to brag about.

I wonder how the economics works out. We know consumers are willing to give up a lot of things for cheaper tickets. And for that market it is now a volume business.

Business Expenses and trip could certainly paid for super fast airline. But this could cut out business trips revenue from normal operation, so it means flight price would have to go up to compensate for the loss of business class?

Although I am pretty sure they will sell well for as a private jet. Most super rich has way too much money and too little time.

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#132

Post by ksec »

earthtourist wrote: post #75

I like the idea of supersonic passenger jets existing again. I'm not sure I really see the point though. Would you rather fly in business class comfort for 8 hours or with less comfort for 4 hours? Almost doesn't seem worth the expense and risk of going supersonic. I would be so much more excited about an airplane that was large enough that economy class seating was as comfortable as business class seating is today.…

>Would you rather fly in business class comfort for 8 hours or with less comfort for 4 hours?

Why is it less comfort? I dont see how the two are mutually exclusive.

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#133

Post by njarboe »

earthtourist wrote: post #75

I like the idea of supersonic passenger jets existing again. I'm not sure I really see the point though. Would you rather fly in business class comfort for 8 hours or with less comfort for 4 hours? Almost doesn't seem worth the expense and risk of going supersonic. I would be so much more excited about an airplane that was large enough that economy class seating was as comfortable as business class seating is today.…

Single day round trip flights New York to London for business meetings would be a big seller. Leave NYC at 6am, get in at 3pm London time, have meetings till 7pm, get home at 8pm New York time. No jet lag and sleep in your own home. Huge value.

Not sure how you can desire better safety. The last fatal crash of a US airline flight was in 2009.

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#134

Post by aetherspawn »

everyone wrote: post #69
yazaddaruvala wrote: post #9

The blog post is hyper focused on the wings and didn't make a lot of sense without context. This link[1] was extremely useful to better understand what Boom is doing and how far along they are. [1] https://boomsupersonic.com/xb-1/build

omg that website is freakin' terrible!

I thought the website was really cool.

But the first image really sucked. The other 30 images and animated constructs were super cool, but the entire experience was wrecked by the first image that you see, which looked like a jpg of a plane drawn in ms paint.

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#135

Post by tinco »

flyinglizard wrote: post #87
tinco wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are though. Tesla is a horrible example, electric cars have better fuel economy, so should have a lower TCO for daily users in the long run. Which has always explicitly been Tesla's goal in the long run. This plane, while awesome, is not a Tesla, it's never going to be as cheap as a commercial flight, and it's certainly not going to make the world a better place.

Fuel cost is far from being the dominating factor in TCO; that would be depreciation. I just ran Edmunds TCO calculator on an Audi A6: 5 year TCO of $70k, with depreciation over 5 years being $35k and fuel only contributing $9k. Electric cars are nowhere near an affordable means of transportation right now (that would be a Hyundai Accent), so GP point stands true.

How does GP point stand true? Do you think in 20 years an electric car still has a TCO higher than a gasoline car?

In any case, it's what Tesla's ambition is, even if electric cars still have a higher TCO then, it just means Tesla failed, not that it's the same kind of company as Boom is.

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#136

Post by exDM69 »

ricardobeat wrote: post #27

This is quite scary for a non-engineer. You're telling me that this little supersonic plane has the whole wing structure held together by a handful of 4mm thick metal struts, manually glued to the wing surface, with wire pulleys running on the inside :O

Yes, glued. Although "structural adhesive" is the preferred term. Race cars and carbon fiber supercars are built this way too, there is decades of experience in this kind of manufacturing for high stress environments.

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#137

Post by kwhitefoot »

rconti wrote: post #121
earthtourist wrote: post #75

I like the idea of supersonic passenger jets existing again. I'm not sure I really see the point though. Would you rather fly in business class comfort for 8 hours or with less comfort for 4 hours? Almost doesn't seem worth the expense and risk of going supersonic. I would be so much more excited about an airplane that was large enough that economy class seating was as comfortable as business class seating is today.…

So far this sounds more 'affordable' than 'business class comfort' which I STILL cannot afford no matter how hard I try to justify it to myself. There's gotta be a market for an all-business-class plane, since we know that first/business subsidize coach, but nobody's doing it yet. The airlines want to throw those business class seats out as perks to people spending corporate dollars, not charge the end user what they…

> first/business subsidize coach

Really? How come first has all but disappeared on European flights and business keeps shrinking?

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#138

Post by exDM69 »

mrfusion wrote: post #93
mauvehaus wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest change in switching from software to woodworking is that when you cock things up in woodworking, you can't git reset your problems away. The closer I get to done, the more careful I get. Scrapping a part at the beginning sucks, but it's mostly a material cost at that point. As you close in on done, the time dominates the cost, and you get real careful when you have a lot of that in.

You switched? I’d love to hear more. How why?

Lots of sw engineers dabble in woodworking on their spare time. It tickles a similar engineering nerve, but the lack of "undo" needs a bit of a paradigm shift. You can stare at a piece for quite some time but sooner or later you will have to engage in an irreversible operation.

Being a professional woodworker is not really a viable career option (unless you get lucky). Building kitchens, doing finish carpentry and other related fields of course are, but woodworking is only a relatively small part of that. Very few people can afford the amount of labour that goes into bespoke furniture items.

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#139

Post by adwn »

chrismorgan wrote: post #114
elil17 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glue is sort of the wrong word. When you hear glue you maybe imagine the general purpose glue that you can buy, like Elmers glue or Super Glue. This is a chemical adhesive designed specifically for the surfaces that it's holding together (i.e., they will use a different glue for composite-to-metal bonds than metal-to-metal, etc.) and it's very strong. Many things you wouldn't expect are glued together. Many weld and…

And these bonds can be stronger than the base materials, so that it’s actually least likely to break where you glued it.

Cue the obligatory "Then why don't they build the entire plane out of that glue?"

Re: XB-1's wings are officially closed out

#140

Post by goodcanadian »

rconti wrote: post #121
earthtourist wrote: post #75

I like the idea of supersonic passenger jets existing again. I'm not sure I really see the point though. Would you rather fly in business class comfort for 8 hours or with less comfort for 4 hours? Almost doesn't seem worth the expense and risk of going supersonic. I would be so much more excited about an airplane that was large enough that economy class seating was as comfortable as business class seating is today.…

So far this sounds more 'affordable' than 'business class comfort' which I STILL cannot afford no matter how hard I try to justify it to myself. There's gotta be a market for an all-business-class plane, since we know that first/business subsidize coach, but nobody's doing it yet. The airlines want to throw those business class seats out as perks to people spending corporate dollars, not charge the end user what they…

There are a handful of all business class routes. For example: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/travel-clas...
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