Latest news with #BlakeScholl
Bloomberg
26-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Odd Lots: The Company That Wants To Bring Back Supersonic Jet Travel
We talk all the time about the US attempting to become a powerhouse in advanced manufacturing, but a lot of it just sounds like talk that's not going anywhere. But some companies are trying. Boom Supersonic is an 11-year old company that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in its quest to build a new supersonic jet for commercial air passengers. And it believes that just because the business model of the Concorde didn't work out in the end, that there's no reason there can't be a market for ultra-fast travel in the sky. On this episode, we spoke with Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl about the business, and how they actually plan to manufacture planes. We discuss the challenges of advanced manufacturing in the United States and why he believes that small startups can succeed, even while legacy aerospace firms like Boeing stumble.
Bloomberg
26-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
The Company That Wants To Bring Back Supersonic Jet Travel
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Subscribe to the newsletter We talk all the time about the US attempting to become a powerhouse in advanced manufacturing, but a lot of it just sounds like talk that's not going anywhere. But some companies are trying. Boom Supersonic is an 11-year old company that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in its quest to build a new supersonic jet for commercial air passengers. And it believes that just because the business model of the Concorde didn't work out in the end, that there's no reason there can't be a market for ultra-fast travel in the sky. On this episode, we spoke with Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl about the business, and how they actually plan to manufacture planes. We discuss the challenges of advanced manufacturing in the United States and why he believes that small startups can succeed, even while legacy aerospace firms like Boeing stumble.
Telegraph
21-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Supersonic travel inevitable, maker of Concorde successor claims
The return of supersonic travel has become 'inevitable' after Donald Trump lifted a 52-year ban on such flights over US soil, according to the company building a successor to Concorde. Boom Supersonic, which has been developing an updated version of the Anglo-French aircraft for a decade, said the president had provided the final push needed to make the jet a reality. Blake Scholl, Boom's founder, said the lifting of the ban will open up a wider market for supersonic flights and help the sector reach critical mass and financial viability more quickly. Flight times between London and an inland US city such as Chicago could now be cut from 7 hours 20 minutes on a subsonic aircraft to just 4 hours 30 minutes on Boom's Overture jet. Mr Trump signed an executive order lifting the supersonic ban this month after a Boom test flight in January broke the sound barrier without the sonic boom reaching the ground. Mr Scholl said: 'It's just fantastic. I think at this point it makes the return of supersonic passenger flight inevitable.' He said he encountered 'a tremendous amount of excitement' on visiting the White House and Congress a day after announcing that so-called 'boomless cruise' had been achieved. 'It's been talked about in theory for a long time,' he said, 'but once a thing goes from theory to practise all of a sudden it gets people's attention.' A bipartisan bill was introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate, before Mr Trump's intervention rendered the legislative route unnecessary. Speaking about the move, the president expressed frustration with the pace of modern air travel, saying that the industry had 'gone backward' in the past 30 years. Describing Concorde as 'one of the most beautiful pieces of art,' he said the sonic boom was never a huge problem and that companies now had it 'pretty well figured out'. He said: 'The technology changes. So we're making it possible. We have regressed and now we are going to progress.' During its test flights, Boom ensured that sound waves were refracted away from the Earth by breaking the sound barrier at an altitude and speed dictated by atmospheric conditions. Mr Scholl said he expects to see supersonic private jets link American cities as Boom's airliners operate transatlantic routes while taking advantage of the rule change when crossing the US. He said: 'I think other people are going to build this product. It makes the market much larger and the use case much larger.' Canada retains a supersonic ban so a London-Chicago service would have to ignore the shortest route over Newfoundland and fly at Mach 1.7 to the US east coast and then drop its speed to Mach 1.3 to complete the journey. Mr Scholl said Mr Trump's landmark decision, under which the speed ban will be replaced with noise-based standards, should not be viewed as controversial. He said: 'It makes all the sense in the world. If there's no boom, that's not a hard decision.' He said that the 1973 law – introduced to spite Europe and the Soviet Union, which had pressed on with supersonic projects after the US withdrew – had stifled innovation and was 'the worst own goal in regulatory history'. Mr Scholl said the supersonic ban could even be blamed for what he called 'the gradual implosion of Boeing' as talented engineers deserted aerospace for the technology sector and companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Google. He said: 'If you go from the Wright brothers to the introduction of the Boeing 707, every generation of commercial aeroplanes was faster and better. 'But the modern day 787 is really the same product doing the same thing, just more efficient and more refined, but not any better at connecting the planet.'
Forbes
09-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump Clears U.S. For Supersonic Flights Ending +50 Year Ban
President Trump has issued an executive order 'leading the world in supersonic flight'which requires the Federal Aviation Administration to remove restrictions on supersonic flights within U.S. airspace. The existing noise rules have been in place since 1968, and a corresponding FAA restriction on flights exceeding Mach 1 established in 1970. These rules previously prevented Concorde operations on transcontinental flights. The FAA has reviewed this rule in recent years but made no changes to the overland flight restriction. The new Trump executive order requires the FAA to repeal its 'prohibition on overland supersonic flight, establish an interim noise-based-certification standard, and repeal other regulations that hinder supersonic flight.' The FAA would need to repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days and issue a Notice of Proposed Rule Making to establish a standard for supersonic aircraft certification within 18 months of the order. The lifting of restrictions will be a boon to Boom Supersonic, which has been advancing the development and testing of its supersonic aircraft. The company's XB-1 demonstrator performed its first supersonic flight at the Mojave Air & Space Port in California in January of this year. 'XB-1's supersonic flight demonstrates that the technology for passenger supersonic flight has arrived,' said Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl in a company announcement. 'A small band of talented and dedicated engineers has accomplished what previously took governments and billions of dollars. Next, we are scaling up the technology on XB-1 for the Overture supersonic airliner. Our ultimate goal is to bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone.' Importantly, Boom demonstrated its first supersonic flight without producing an audible sonic boom on the ground. The aircraft features Boomless Cruise which uses Mach cutoff, a factor of speed and altitude which prevents the boom from reaching the ground. Systems measure the current atmospheric conditions to find the right altitude and speed at which aircraft can break the sound barrier without being heard below. 'XB-1 broke the sound barrier three times during its first supersonic flight—without an audible boom,' said Scholl in a company announcement. 'This confirms what we've long believed: supersonic travel can be affordable, sustainable, and friendly to those onboard and on the ground.' Overture could fly at Mach 1.3, shortening U.S. transcontinental flights by up to 90 minutes. It would also enable international routes to fly faster during U.S. overland segments, making commercial operations more efficient. Boom has earned 130 orders and pre-orders for Overture aircraft from American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines, which it claims accounts for 'the first five years of production.' Last year, Boom completed the construction of its Overture Superfactory in Greensboro, North Carolina. There, Boom planes to scale production up to 66 Overture aircraft per year. While the boom may no longer be a barrier to advancing supersonic flight in the U.S., questions remain on the sustainability of commercial flights at Mach-speed. A 2018 report by the International Council on Clean Transportation previously raised questions on whether supersonic commercial flights, which have five to seven times higher fuel burn than subsonic flights, could be justified as airlines have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint. Boom has tried to address environmental concerns by ensuring that Overture's propulsion system, Symphony, can run on up to 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Still, SAF is considerably more expensive than standard jet fuel. It is also not currently produced in the volume airlines require to make their subsonic flights more environmentally friendly. During this year's annual general meeting, Willie Walsh, Director General of the International Air Transport Association, said SAF production would double to 2 million tonnes in 2025, only 0.7% of the total fuel supply required by airlines. 'And even that relatively small amount will add $4.4 billion globally to the fuel bill,' Walsh said. 'The pace of progress in ramping up production and gaining efficiencies to reduce costs must accelerate.' In Europe, where governments have required that airlines increase their use of SAF, airlines will take one million tonnes of SAF this year. It is expected to cost $1.2 billion at current market prices. However, airlines also face an additional cost of $1.7 billion in compliance fees, more than doubling the fuel price. To address the challenges of greater SAF adoption, airlines are asking governments for assistance to reduce the costs and increase supply. Still, it is unclear how soon there might be enough sustainable aviation fuel to operate supersonic services exclusively on SAF. Whatever fuel airlines use to operate flights past the speed of sound will be expensive, and airlines will need to compensate for the costs of operations with higher airfares. As during the Concorde era, tomorrow's supersonic airline flights are likely to remain the privilege of a few who can afford a considerably higher ticket price to shave a few hours off their journey.
Wall Street Journal
07-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
New York to Paris in Under Four Hours? Inside the Effort to Build the Next Concorde
When the Concorde was grounded in 2003, done in by strained economics and a fiery crash on a Paris runway, it appeared to be the end of the line for supersonic travel. Nothing emerged to replace it. In fact, the speed of air travel moved in the opposite direction, with many routes getting slower in recent years as congestion and air-traffic control inefficiencies jammed up the skies. A former Amazon software engineer named Blake Scholl founded a company to change this. A decade ago, he launched Boom Supersonic, betting that his Denver-based startup could tap in to the allure of ultrafast travel—a desire that has never quite been extinguished despite the financial and practical challenges that ended the Concorde's nearly 30-year run. Scholl sees a world where round-trip trans-Atlantic business journeys happen in a single day.
