The Company That Wants To Bring Back Supersonic Jet Travel
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What is the history of supersonic passenger travel and why did the Concorde fail?
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Oddlots podcast. I'm Joe Weissenthal.
And I'm Tracy Alloway.
Tracy, I have to say, if I had any friend who I would have guessed would have ever been on a Concord, it would have been you.
Oh. Is that a nice thing to say? You're
international, you've been all around the world, sophisticated traveler. Like I would have guessed that maybe at some point when it still flew that maybe you would have flown aboard the Concorde jet.
I mean, I would have been in middle school or high school flying on the Concorde, which would have been quite an experience, I imagine. Let's see. So it stopped flying in the early two thousands. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Right? I guess
that was a long time we got.
Yeah. But of course it has this massive legacy. And when people think of the Concorde, they think of luxury air travel and I guess advanced technology too. And it's kind of crazy to think that this plane, a supersonic plane, started flying in I think it was the sixties or the seventies. And now fifty years later, we don't have any supersonic air travel, commercially at least. I know there's supersonic fights and things like that. Fire jump. Isn't that weird?
Well, it's weird. It's depressing too, because I think when I think of like civil aviation in general, not only do I think oh we haven't really made much progress, Like we're not at the cutting edge. We're like going backwards, right? Because okay, like uh we're currently not building any supersonic jets or flying them. Our capacity, if you just think about the US and you think about Boeing, it seems to have gotten worse over time. So it's not just that Boeing hasn't launched new planes in a long time. Its ability to produce the existing planes seems to have been degraded. So this is one area where like it's not even Lack of progress, he's like literally going reverse.
Also, every once in a while one of the uh budget carriers in Europe especially will threaten to have like stand up seating on one of their planes. It really does feel like we're we're regressing.
By the way, hot take. I think for short flights I would be okay with a stand-up seat.
No. Yeah, seriously. I stand
up on the bus for a long time, I stand up on the train, I could do it.
For like an hour?
Yeah, I have actually. But anyway, without digressing too much. So, you know, we talk about manufacturing. We actually talk about aerospace a fair amount, but we should talk more about the people actually building actual things or at least aspiring to actual build things in the United States and what are the barriers and why does it seem so hard.
Let's do it, especially for something like supersonic flight, which was challenging at the best of times. I think that's a a fair way to describe it. So I'm excited to dig into this.
Totally. So in early June, the White House instructed the FAA to lift its ban on flying supersonic jets over the United States. I don't think the ban has been lifted yet, but it's been instructed to And then the question is anyone, are there actually going to be new supersonic jets? Will this actually matter? Cause right now none are flying. Anyway, there are companies that are trying. And one of the companies that is trying to build a commercial supersonic jet is Boom Supersonic. And I'm thrilled to say we have its founder and CEO, Blake Scholl, on the podcast. They're actually trying to build a supersonic jet. That's crazy. Welcome to the podcast, Blake.
Hey Joe. Hey Tracy. Thank you for having me.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the history of supersonic passenger travel and why did the Concorde fail?
0:01–6:01
2
How did Boom Supersonic secure funding and what milestones have they achieved so far?
6:01–12:49
3
What manufacturing innovations is Boom using to build a supersonic jet in the U.S.?
12:49–19:05
4
Why did Boom decide to develop its own engine and how is the Symphony engine being created?
19:05–25:52
5
How is Boom navigating FAA certification and regulatory hurdles for a new supersonic aircraft?
25:52–32:25
6
What is Boom’s business model for pricing, seat count, and airline partnerships?
32:25–39:52
7
How does Boom expect airlines and passengers to respond to faster, premium‑only supersonic service?
39:52–47:32
8
What are Boom’s long‑term plans for scaling production, reducing capital needs, and expanding the market?
47:32–53:32
Speakers
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