Boom XB-1 First Supersonic Flight [video]

Boom (YC W16) – Supersonic Passenger Airplanes:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11329286">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11329286</a><p>I remember seeing this post about Boom going through YC, 9 years ago. It&#x27;s really cool to see the founder laying out what he wanted to accomplish in the comments and then seeing it happen today. Especially fun looking back at those comments saying it couldn&#x27;t be done and all the haranguing over the name &quot;Boom&quot; :)<p>Congrats to the Boom team! Such a great accomplishment.

Boom’s real challenge isn’t just showing they can go supersonic—it’s designing an engine and airframe combo that can operate at scale, hit reasonable ticket prices, and address stricter environmental policies than Concorde ever faced. The XB-1 proves they’re capable of building a small supersonic jet, but the gap between a funded prototype and a viable passenger fleet is enormous. Unless they can tackle those regulatory hurdles (especially around overland noise), keep operating costs competitive, and deliver a new engine that supports their performance claims, we’re still not much closer to a reliable Mach-plus commercial service than we were in the 1970s. It’s progress, but we shouldn’t confuse a cool proof-of-concept with a profitable flight network.<p>Any case - truly impressed by their persistance. Pushing something for such a long time despite being so far from any commercial traction feels insance to me.

Scott Manley posted an interesting video including some interviews and technical details on XB-1 (as well as some time in the XB-1 simulator near the end of the video).<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ITGgRhjcHAM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ITGgRhjcHAM</a>

&gt; Boom revealed the final production design of Overture, which is slated to roll out in <i>2025</i> and carry its first passengers by 2029.<p>How is Boom tracking to their timelines?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.aa.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;news-details&#x2F;2022&#x2F;American-Airlines-Announces-Agreement-to-Purchase-Boom-Supersonic-Overture-Aircraft-Places-Deposit-on-20-Overtures-FLT-08&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.aa.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;news-details&#x2F;2022&#x2F;American-Airlines...</a>

The plane looks so small on the runway, I thought how could it possibly hold 64-80 passengers.<p>Hint: it&#x27;s because the XB-1 is a one-third scale model of their fully fledged Overture.

I haven&#x27;t seen anyone directly address it in the comments here (or in the video): was an audible sonic boom noticeable on the ground during today&#x27;s test flight?

It&#x27;s nice, but it&#x27;s basically Scaled Composites, Rutan&#x27;s old company, building a supersonic fighter plane sized aircraft. That&#x27;s what Scaled Composites does - build little airplanes as test vehicles. Not always little; they built Stratolaunch.<p>There have been many supersonic bizjet projects.[1] Spike [2] seems to be the only one other than Boom still alive.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Supersonic_business_jet" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Supersonic_business_jet</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.spikeaerospace.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.spikeaerospace.com&#x2F;</a>

Pretty exiting times in aerospace these days. Seeing spacex doing awesome innovation with starship and boom making good progress bringing back supersonic air travel<p>Can someone innovate general aviation

Does 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?

For those wanting to jump to where it goes supersonic, it happens a little after minute 11 on the flight time. The camera shots are clearer during subsonic flight, then it gets fairly blurry. The takeoff and climb were interesting to see; also before it goes supersonic the shots from the air are remarkably clear.

To be built in Greensboro, NC &#x2F; North Carolina ... <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boomsupersonic.com&#x2F;superfactory" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boomsupersonic.com&#x2F;superfactory</a>

The angle of attack at both takeoff and touch down is pretty wild!

Previous thread in sequence:<p><i>Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42852077">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42852077</a> - Jan 2025 (99 comments)

So cool to see this.<p>I have forever been jealous of a colleague in the 90s that got bumped off a business flight, put on the next available Concorde flight a couple of hours later, and still arrived earlier than his original flight.

How cool is that, hopefully will pressure Airbus into developing one too. So far they did silly concept vides only.<p>I&#x27;m also quite worried about Airbus after winning against Boeing becoming complacent since Chinese or Russians are not even close.

I know nothing about Boom. Why is this impressive? We&#x27;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?

“Currently, all civil aircraft flights are prohibited from operating above Mach one speeds over land in the United States.” [1]<p>Mike Bannister’s excellent book <i>Concorde</i> 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.<p>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.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.faa.gov&#x2F;about&#x2F;office_org&#x2F;headquarters_offices&#x2F;apl&#x2F;aee&#x2F;env_policy&#x2F;sfa_supersonic" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.faa.gov&#x2F;about&#x2F;office_org&#x2F;headquarters_offices&#x2F;ap...</a>

Just awesome. Congrats to everyone who worked on this! Excited to see what&#x27;s next from you all.

Watched it live, and it was amazing. Beautiful aircraft.

These guys were in my S16 batch. I have worked Aerospace the last 6 years, and it is AWESOME to see this accomplishment! Surpassing Mach is a massive challenge for a crewed aircraft. Big win for the team, congratulations

So funny how everything is live streamed now I like it, transparency is good

Related:<p><i>Boom Supersonic to break sound barrier during historic test flight today</i><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42852077">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=42852077</a>

I didn&#x27;t see any data on the loudness of the sonic boom. Isn&#x27;t an important part of the idea here to diminish that significantly?

Is the goal to be able to supercruise, or are they just going to be to waste tons of fuel on afterburning like the Concorde?

So why is this happening but SST got pilloried due to noise, vibration, moisture in the stratosphere, ozone layer, etc. Did these issues get solved with the Boom aircraft, or is the solution to route around them via marketing and hope no one opens a history book?

Any idea why there was a &quot;knock it off&quot; call on the 2nd supersonic pass?

There were rumors in the early 2000s of a QSP jet being shopped around by LM SkunkWorks to Wall Street. Also really strong rumors that Cessna was working on a similar jet. These projects probably died.

They worked extremely hard on one problem for 10 years straight. Incredibly impressed. That&#x27;s what it takes to create great things. Congrats Blake!

So apparently the successor to the XB-1 test plane, Overture, is planned to be mainly a luxury airplane, similar to Concorde, just somewhat smaller.<p>I don&#x27;t see a reason to be excited about this. Their CEO compared their test flight to the Falcon 1 rocket, the Falcon 9 precursor. But a better comparison would be Blue Origin&#x27;s New Shepard, or Virgin Galactic&#x27;s SpaceShipOne, because they also mainly offer luxury services. By contrast, the Falcon 9 rockets have real (non luxury) commercial and scientific value.

Watched the livestream. Haven’t gotten that excited over a performance test since the early days of SpaceX, before the dark times.<p>Wishing them all the best! Beautiful aircraft, beautiful demonstration, and hopefully more beautiful datasets that exceed their expectations.<p>Just don’t Milkshake Duck this.

Great milestone, but still pretty far away from taking passengers as this is a scale technology demonstrator.

A wonderful achievement, but the camera operator really should know how to focus for the money shot.

I was expecting to see something Concorde scale, but I guess a private jet is a start.

Cool! It&#x27;s always fun to see the model at the Wings over the Rockies museum.

Is the word aircraft feminine? They keep saying “she” and it sounds weird.

I wonder if they have cameras to show the pilot everything they can&#x27;t see when taking off&#x2F;landing, since it looks like it has the same forward-visibility issues as the Concorde (without the Concorde&#x27;s moveable nose -- I think?).<p>Pretty cool though! It was disappointing that the Concorde (along with commercial supersonic flight in general) was retired around the time I was becoming an adult and could begin to contemplate maybe taking a trip on it someday.

Mach 1.1! *Xoldplay&#x27;s &#x27;speed of sound&#x27; song starts*

Can&#x27;t wait to live the good life of the 80&#x2F;90s again with that our parents enjoyed with 5 hours flights to New York.<p>More technology advances please so we can break through this zeitgeist of human pessimism and introspection.<p>Onwards and upwards!

Is it okay&#x2F;usual for the test pilot to partake in a glass of champagne so soon after landing?<p>On a side note: Channing Tatum is a shoe-in for playing the pilot, Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg, if this ever gets made into a movie.

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

seems too small. where do the passengers go?

Good achievement. Also really good PR from them. If this was a team from say Switzerland it wouldn&#x27;t be on every front page.

They claim this was the first 100% civil aircraft to go supersonic.<p>The Concorde wasn&#x27;t a civil aircraft?<p>Also in the 60s a DC-8 was made to go faster than Mach 1

Remember that the biggest technical challenge to passenger supersonic flight is hacking Congress. People really don&#x27;t like plutocrats in private jets cracking their windows and scaring their dog.

Successful supersonic test! Amazing what humans can achieve.

Congrats to Boom, but also r&#x2F;killthecameraman

For those wondering, it is in flight right now

BMW

For anyone else who finds the opening music infuriating, it stops at 35:50.<p>If anyone from Boom is reading this, please never do that again. Or at least pick better music.

Nothing I’ve read or heard has made me believe there’s a market for supersonic airliner. This is very cool for sure but I don’t know how they’ll ever sell a full size passenger jet. I guess I’ll believe it when I see it.

holy wow!!

This thread:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pprune.org&#x2F;tech-log&#x2F;423988-concorde-question.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pprune.org&#x2F;tech-log&#x2F;423988-concorde-question.htm...</a><p>which covers over a decade, contains many hundreds of entries from Concorde pilots, crew, flight engineers, cabin crew, maintenance personnel, and air traffic control recounting anecdotes and amazing things about the plane and events surrounding it. I started reading it and spent about three absorbing hours fascinated and amazed, unable to stop until it was time to go to bed.<p>I&#x27;m going to resume when I have a few more hours, it&#x27;s gold.

Do you think SpaceX or similar would be attacking this problem space if there was a business to be had here? Seems like a fun pet project that will lose money indefinitely, but love seeing small teams do big things!

This is literally a company designed to separate investors from money so aerospace engineers can have fun, which I guess is better than many startups. At the end of the day though there is no way they are designing, prototyping, getting FAA approval for, and going to manufacturing on a plane and engine by 2030. It&#x27;s not unlikely, it&#x27;s just not feasible which literally anyone who bothers to look at the FAA website would be able to tell.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.faa.gov&#x2F;aircraft&#x2F;air_cert&#x2F;airworthiness_certification" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.faa.gov&#x2F;aircraft&#x2F;air_cert&#x2F;airworthiness_certific...</a><p>&quot;By comparison, the certification of a new aircraft type can take between 5 and 9 years.&quot;<p>And that is just for the plane, engine certification is its own process and just as arduous.