Boom Supersonic's XB-1 prototype aces 2nd test flight

Blogspam for https://boomsupersonic.com/flyby/xb-1-completes-second-fligh..., with more details and pictures (including a credit for the test pilot)

I imagine the odds are that Boom will most likely fail, but if wealthy investors want to pump money into supersonic flight R&D knowing that the risk is high, then I'm all for it. If nothing else it's very cool.

I'm enthusiastic about what Boom are setting out to achieve, but it's my understanding that the technological/engineering challenges to supersonic flight is just one hurdle – the other being the geopolitical issues that arise from negotiating flight paths over various country's air space.

The economics of the Concorde were significantly impacted when India prohibited Singapore Airlines / British Airways from flying over Indian airspace[1].

[1] https://www.heritageconcorde.com/singapore-airlines-concorde...

I still can't really wrap my head around this company:

1. How did a SWE start and raise funds for this company

2. How did he/they recruit the kind of talent you'd need to actually build a test plane

3. How much is left to do before a real commercial flight, and can they really do it?

A few months ago the conversation was "if they depend on next-gen engines and next-gen fuel this entire company is hindering on tech that isn't even available yet" so as a very non-aviation person, what does this test flight prove? It's not the air frame, its not the engines, its not even the full control suite.

Many have questioned the sanity of those investing in Boom, and from a commercial standpoint I agree. Every time I see the XB-1 I think the real hope is a military purchase, given the XB-1's design choices.

Thus far it looks similar to an upgraded T-38 to me. The XB-1 and T-38 are similar (ish) sizes, have roughly the same takeoff weight, both use the very old/proven J85 engines, etc.

If Boom can pull off the Mach 2+ supercruise concept for this demonstrator, they might well secure a spot as a low cost 5th gen fighter trainer with good export potential as a cheap fighter/recon platform.

Does anyone have any insight as to how much modern simulation software helps the process?

From what little I remember of reading about the first attempts at supersonic flight, there were a lot of unknowns and somewhat counter-intuitive factors, and it was being calculated on slide rules. Can modern engineering and simulation software reasonably predict the effects of supersonic flight on a model?

My question is, why aren't existing airplane manufacturers and airlines doing supersonic?

Why is it a startup without the same engineerforce or airline experience?

Is the goal to sell another dream after dream to enough whales to be able to cash out on secondary like Uber and WeWorks?

Seems like the most successful startups isn't actually finishing a product or providing forever jobs but sell enough of the half baked dream to enough investors to discover liquidity.

That doesn't seem like a very good thing for the economy in the long run. Money and resources are spent with the sole purpose of producing a few billionaires who will park their money outside the economy and pay little to no taxes and have it insured by bailouts by the people who made it happen.

Maybe we’ll have commercial supersonic flight in our lifetimes.

Another impressive aircraft by Scaled Composites. Nice. Being acquired by Northrop Grumman after Rutan retired hasn't stopped them.

Congrats to the Boom team!

Silent supersonic cruise missiles!

I hope Boom can make supersonic travel commercially viable. Would be nice to have a faster option for long-distance travel, even though the cost will probably be too high for most. I'd sooner spend money on that vs. edge-of-space tourism (a la Virgin Galactic/SpaceX).