United ordering 15 supersonic jets from startup

[y_p_w]

Amazing that commercial passenger jet air travel speed hasn't increased in 70 years.
On a successful sustainable scale.

Supersonic flight is loud, so pretty much all Concorde routes were over water. Might even break a few windows. And people complain about the noise at airports even without supersonic flight. SNA is a prime example of that.

The Concorde needed afterburners to take off and to go transonic. That's going to be loud as heck and used a lot of fuel. I'd imagine the people living near airports didn't appreciate it. Boom says that they don't have or need afterburners, so maybe that will help with acceptance. I don't think they're ever going to be allowed to go supersonic in passenger service over land though.

Then there's fuel consumption. I don't know if I buy the Boom CEO's claim that it might end up cheaper than current air travel, but they can certainly try to achieve that.

 

[alarmguy]

Supersonic flight is loud, so pretty much all Concorde routes were over water. Might even break a few windows. And people complain about the noise at airports even without supersonic flight. SNA is a prime example of that.

The Concorde needed afterburners to take off and to go transonic. That's going to be loud as heck and used a lot of fuel. I'd imagine the people living near airports didn't appreciate it. Boom says that they don't have or need afterburners, so maybe that will help with acceptance. I don't think they're ever going to be allowed to go supersonic in passenger service over land though.

Then there's fuel consumption. I don't know if I buy the Boom CEO's claim that it might end up cheaper than current air travel, but they can certainly try to achieve that.

I knew the planes well!
Spent almost my whole life on the South Shore of Nassau County, which is about maybe 20 straight line miles away from Kennedy airport

They were quite a sight, but I remember the protests well, caravans of cars tying up traffic for hours at the airport protesting

I love the way they look and even the crack of the engines. However they didn’t break the sound barrier until well over the ocean

 

[y_p_w]

I knew the planes well!
Spent almost my whole life on the South Shore of Nassau County, which is about maybe 20 straight line miles away from Kennedy airport

They were quite a sight, but I remember the protests well, caravans of cars tying up traffic for hours at the airport protesting

I love the way they look and even the crack of the engines. However they didn’t break the sound barrier until well over the ocean

Here's one taking off with the afterburners look like little flamethrowers. Lots of smoke too. But the afterburners are clearly off once it's in the air.



This video seems to capture how loud the afterburners are. I'm surprised it would use Luton with their relatively short runway.



When I was a kid I had a Japan Airlines Concorde die cast toy. It had flashing red lights but wasn't motorized. I think it was a promotional item and I'm not sure how my dad got it for me. But Japan Airlines cancelled their order well before my dad got it for me. All the major US airlines had orders too.

 

[alarmguy]

Here's one taking off with the afterburners look like little flamethrowers. Lots of smoke too. But the afterburners are clearly off once it's in the air.



This video seems to capture how loud the afterburners are. I'm surprised it would use Luton with their relatively short runway.



When I was a kid I had a Japan Airlines Concorde die cast toy. It had flashing red lights but wasn't motorized. I think it was a promotional item and I'm not sure how my dad got it for me. But Japan Airlines cancelled their order well before my dad got it for me. All the major US airlines had orders too.

Great video, it was a gorgeous plane

I quickly found a video of one taking off near me at JFK airport

 

[Quattro Pete]

So who wants to be the first to fly on a plane made by Boom?
Dumb name.

Not a fan of "Our planes go boom!" ad campaign, huh?

 

[awguy]

Back in the 80's airline employees could fly standby NYC to London on the Concorde and return on a 747 for $1250, But that was expensive back then so didn't do it. Saw the plane on display at LAX prior to that.

 

[y_p_w]

Not a fan of "Our planes go boom!" ad campaign, huh?

I think the name can be justified, since destructive forces have been used in aviation. Lightning. Thunderbolt. Typhoon. Not quite like the GM Impact though. A little too on point.

 

[JHZR2]

Did you see the video? The examples they used were Newark-Heathrow, Newark-Frankfurt, and San Francisco-Narita. I think United just returned to JFK, but not for international flights. I found it rather odd that they've settled on EWR as their NYC area hub.

Why? EWR gets you to NYC easily by Amtrak and NJ Transit. Easier than the public options from JFK, per my experience.

EWR was a continental hub and I think that was a big factor.

I thought the Concorde went from JFK so it was immediately over water?

 

[y_p_w]

Why? EWR gets you to NYC easily by Amtrak and NJ Transit. Easier than the public options from JFK, per my experience.

EWR was a continental hub and I think that was a big factor.

I thought the Concorde went from JFK so it was immediately over water?

It was very loud on takeoff because it needed afterburners. It still needs to be near Long Island, although I believe they didn't try to go supersonic until it was well away from any land.

 

[loneryder]

I just read that the Concorde's bent nose was so that the pilot could see the runway. I always thought there was a physics air resistance reason.

The old Wright Bros type planes were so complicated with their engineering and this plane is so simple like a paper airplane.

I used to live in Sterling Va not far from the Potomac river. The Concord used to arrive and depart Dulles Daily. It was supposed to fly along the Potomac and take a left into Dulles approach. Those guys would cut the turn short and go right over my house. They started lowering the nose over my house. It rattled the windows of the house. That thing was loud. I remember fares being around $3k.

 

[y_p_w]

They're reaching transonic in their testbed prototype.

 

[y_p_w]

First supersonic flight of the testbed. This was livestreamed this morning. They claim that it's the first time that a civilian aircraft was granted permission to go supersonic over the Continental United States.

 

[97prizm]

https://www.reuters.com/business/ae...raft-boom-supersonic-climate-push-2021-06-03/

Their rendering of what it will look like seems interesting.

https://boomsupersonic.com/united




Interesting setup. Three turbofans and no afterburners. I recall the Concorde had afterburners, but didn't need them for cruising at at Mach 2. But it needed them for takeoff and to go transonic before it could cruise without afterburners.

United, Delta JAL and two other airlines have firm orders for 140-160 aircraft in total. I've been trying to get employed with them as this looks like it could be a huge deal. Their test aircraft just went supersonic this week.