seems too small. where do the passengers go?
The plane they used in this test is a 1/3 scale version of the final product.
Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
361–370 of 545 posts
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#362The angle of attack at both takeoff and touch down is pretty wild!
Reminded me of a goose landing on a lake.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't let go of the suspicion that this could become some kind of military (drone or not) airframe.
The military has had supersonic aircraft since the 1950s, why would they care about this?
The military has never had an operational supersonic transport aircraft. It's not a high enough priority for them to fund development of one from scratch, but if it's available on the civilian market then they'll probably buy a few. There are a few potential missions such as dignitary transport or rapid delivery of special operations teams.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the range in which supersonic really gets interesting (to wealthy people/execs) is trans-Pacific. My dad got upgraded to the Concorde once from NYC to London and his reaction was more or less eh. Glad to have done it once but I'm now arriving in London at rush hour rather than having a nice dinner in first class.
There ar every few day flights from the US to Europe. A lunchtime flight arriving at 8pm is far nicer than 5 hours sleep on an overnight flight or the 7am flight. West bound being able to leave the office at 6pm and be in New York to pay the kids to bed is great.
Yes, the question is how many thousand dollars out of your own pocket great which would be the situation with most people.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#365How 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.
This is slightly off topic, but why cant we start rebuilding Concorde? Wouldn't it be much easier to rebuild using modern technology? And try to get Mach 3 over the Atlantic so London to New York could hopefully be under 3 hours including take off and landing.
For Concorde the entire supply chain is long gone. A clean sheet design based around currently available parts would be cheaper than trying to resurrect an old design.
As for speed, Mach 3 is really tough because of extreme airframe heating. Mach 2 is about the highest sustained speed an airplane can manage without using really exotic materials or active cooling.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you fully appreciate the number of obstacles in the way of new entrants building commerically-operable airplanes. Flying a supersonic prototype is amazing. But it is a depressingly-small amount of the overall work necessary to simply start taking passengers , much less make something economical, and even less to make something succeed .
Yes, I'm fully aware the market for building commercial jets is probably one of the most locked-down on the planet. But hard things have been done before. Throwing rocks at the people trying doesn't do much to help them. They're fully aware of the reasons they might fail. Would you rather these folks just not try at all, so you don't have to feel jealous if they actually succeed?
I hope they succeed! It’s not throwing rocks at them to point out the obscene numbers of and size of obstacles they need to overcome to others on the sidelines who seem to think that this is anything more than a very, very early step along the way of a still-unlikely future product.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#367Does Boom have a public roadmap? How much of a jump is it between building a fighter jet clone and building a passenger sized aircraft? I suspect it’s a massive jump. How much of the technology and testing is transferable? I also suspect not much. They’re going to spend an immense amount of money testing this aircraft, will it get them closer to passenger service as a result?
In the Q&A at the end of the video the CEO said:
- Symphony engine being produced by EOY '25
- 3 years to have first full size Overture roll off the line
- About 4 years to have it in the air for first time.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#368Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh. The longest flights are around 10,000 miles. They usually cost over $1000. Fuel apparently accounts for about 25% of ticket price on long haul, so $250 in fuel normally. To do that in 4 hours is to travel 2,500 mph. Naively, traveling twice the speed requires 8x the power, so going over 4x the usual 550mph should mean over 64x more fuel burn, or $16,000 in fuel alone. Maybe a bit less since drag doesn't grow qui…
The air density decreases exponentially with the altitude, while the drag only increases quadratically with speed. It is entirely possible that there is an altitude, maybe 70km, where it is much more economical to fly (at supersonic speeds) than the current subsonic planes. Most likely the CEO of Boom ran the numbers, and the $100 ticket price is doable, at least if you exclude things like profit, capital depreciatio…
> Most likely the CEO of Boom ran the numbers, and the $100 ticket price is doable
Most likely it's aspirational, something to market to investors and potential employees.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#369Pretty exiting times in aerospace these days. Seeing spacex doing awesome innovation with starship and boom making good progress bringing back supersonic air travel Can someone innovate general aviation
Until the FAA oversight and permitting regs are updated, it's far too cost and time prohibitive to bring anything (aside from avionics) truly innovative to the GA market.
For a vivid example, look at the multi-year certification torture that even a minor new engine design (DeltaHawk https://www.deltahawk.com/ ) must endure, or hell, the comical marathon of low-lead avgas adoption, or even a basic 12V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22K-XdV7e-0 lithium battery.
GA is a hell of a fun hobby, but not a market conducive to venture capital timelines or returns.
Re: Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> 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. Why is this interesting?
Because once things are paid by consumers things get better, more responsible, efficient, and so on, compared to free money granted by states to a few at the cost of many?