Comment by mmustapic
2 months ago
I'm very glad Boom has to pivot to AI data centers: this means their main objective (building a supersonic plane) is in trouble, and they'll go broke soon.
Since the beginning they've been lying with green buzzwords or even "USD 100 in 4 hours to anywhere in the world". The reality is that the plane would be used by business and rich travelers burning more fuel just to save a couple of hours. Flying slower if always going to be cheaper and more efficient (unless they are working on a new technology, but they aren't). They even have the audacity to applaud themselves with the phrase "the first completely private supersonic plane", with a picture of their demonstrator beside a supersonic chase plane from the 60s.
I don’t think business and rich people will use it either. The Concorde worked because you were in a black hole while you crossed the Atlantic, unable to work and unplugged from what was going on. So saving 5 hours was extremely valuable. Now, we have laptops and in-flight wifi, so you don’t miss much on the plane like you used to. Combine that with ultra luxury first class cabins that make the flight extremely comfortable, and saving some time while having to sacrifice all the amenities that come with a good first/business class cabin on a full sized airplane just doesn’t make sense.
Even private planes just don’t feel like they would make sense. Most private jets are used for regional and transcon, and the time savings would be much less significant at those distances. I feel like most wealthy individuals would rather upgrade to a larger, more comfortable, and/or longer-range jet than to sacrifice comfort, size, and range for supersonic. Only the truly ultra-wealthy seem like they might pick up a few, but that is such a vanishingly small market.
How long until Starlink allows luxury ocean liners come back? You can get a lot more space on a boat than a plane.
Dubious or non-existent performance numbers, self-aggrandizing references to being in close contact with other, more famous/infamous CEOs/people, and the bluster of urgency as a smokescreen to hide the lack of anything concrete throughout- this Blake Scholl is following the Elon Musk playbook to a "T".
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