Boom’s airliner may be delayed, and its data center power business lost a customer.
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United Airlines CEO doubts supersonic airliner from Boom will be ready by 2029
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Hyper-local take here, but I’m really rooting for these guys and JetZero to bring manufacturing back to the Triad in N.C.
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Quite frankly I'm still surprised that someone as no nonsense as Scott Kirby even entertained Boom let alone made such a public association with them. Of course it was going to be delayed if it ever even makes it to the sky at all
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Sure. Because a turbine that runs at a steady speed at ground level atmospheric pressure and temperatures and generates electrical power is going to be identical to a turbine that runs at variable speeds in a much lower pressure, much lower temperature, mugh higher wind speed environment to push an airplane at Mach 1...
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A company making a supersonic airliner is switching to powering data centers? Was that idea created by AI or something?
Because when you want to power a data center you're not in the slightest bit concerned about someone building your gas turbines without any experience building those or servicing them?
Because when you want to power a data center you're not in the slightest bit concerned about someone building your gas turbines without any experience building those or servicing them?
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Yeah, what the world really needs is a way for the ultra-wealthy to move around the world faster and less efficiently. Great to see them pick up a sideline in powering datacenters to really revel in destroying the planet for profit.
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Yes but it still feels gross because they're friends with Fascists.
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I wasn't ever wishing anybody bad outcomes, but a good prior is that pretty much any supersonic startup will eventually reveal its core leadership to be charlatans, starry-eyed idiots dreamers, or both.
Le gasp.
Le gasp.
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Hilarious! 
Maybe they should hire Tom Vice (formerly of Aerion supersonic jets and Sierra Space Dream Chaser infamy).
He’d be good at promoting their supersonic jets while at the same time also promoting their AI power generators for space based AI data centers.
Maybe they should hire Tom Vice (formerly of Aerion supersonic jets and Sierra Space Dream Chaser infamy).
He’d be good at promoting their supersonic jets while at the same time also promoting their AI power generators for space based AI data centers.
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I'm waiting for the next plan to power these AI data centers to be big open fire pits running on coal, that's the kind of respect these guys have for the enviroment
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Give us money to build supersonic airliners!
Step one, do not build a supersonic airliner.
Step two, look for something else unrelated which hooks into whatever the biggest bubble of the day is (I know, AI!).
Step three, probably don't build that either.
Step one, do not build a supersonic airliner.
Step two, look for something else unrelated which hooks into whatever the biggest bubble of the day is (I know, AI!).
Step three, probably don't build that either.
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Core are interesting. You can get the same core in a ship as a 747 or MD-11. The core of the B-1 is much the same as an A320's or 737's.
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Do we have any efficiency and emissions numbers for that kind of generator? I'm curious how they compare to "normal" natural gas plants.
This is a total guess, but I assume much worse, since they are repurposing a design that was optimized for a very different task.
This is a total guess, but I assume much worse, since they are repurposing a design that was optimized for a very different task.
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It seems like it is 'a normal gas plant'.
Most gas plants are reworked old airliner engines (or were when surplus airliner engines could keep up with demand).
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This feels like a company that doesn’t have a purpose except to get money from others.
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Boom is engaged in something that costs billions of dollars (new jet engine from scratch, jet airliner from scratch). I’m not sure of their capitalization, but doubt it will be enough to finish the job, especially as credit gets more expensive.
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Heart of Dawn
Ars Scholae Palatinae
The business case for a supersonic airliner never made any sense; it's too few seats for too little a time saving, for too much of an extra cost in fuel- and doubly so now with the war across the Middle East.
As for gas turbines for data centers; its the worst idea for an even worse idea that nobody wants anywhere near them, even before adding all that extra pollution and noise. The AI bust can't come soon enough, and if it takes Boom out with it- good.
As for gas turbines for data centers; its the worst idea for an even worse idea that nobody wants anywhere near them, even before adding all that extra pollution and noise. The AI bust can't come soon enough, and if it takes Boom out with it- good.
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They never had a chance of releasing a plane in the 2020s. When they decided to make their own jet engine from scratch they pushed the timeline out to nowhere before 2035. Honestly, I'm still going to be surprised if they deliver the plane at all.
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I want Boom to succeed, even though the odds are way against them. Consider that the last clean-sheet airliner to reach the market was the A220. It was originally a Bombardier design, a company which has developed other aircraft and been successful at it. The CSeries program was sold to Airbus for a single Canadian dollar, becoming the A220 overnight. A huge loss for Canada and Bombardier, but seeing it through was likely going to bankrupt the company. They weren’t even building their own engines, instead relying on a P&W GTF. (And those ended up having so many issues it was a major factor leading to Spirit’s bankruptcy!)
An established plane manufacturer and an established engine manufacturer combined couldn’t make an established (read: conventional) design work. Boom is trying to build a clean-sheet design with a clean-sheet engine. If they need to sell cores as gas turbines to bring in some revenue and also get experience with a performant engine core, that’s not a stupid idea. But I still don’t think they’ll ever hand over the keys to a plane to a paying customer.
An established plane manufacturer and an established engine manufacturer combined couldn’t make an established (read: conventional) design work. Boom is trying to build a clean-sheet design with a clean-sheet engine. If they need to sell cores as gas turbines to bring in some revenue and also get experience with a performant engine core, that’s not a stupid idea. But I still don’t think they’ll ever hand over the keys to a plane to a paying customer.
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I was a bit skeptical about their approach to the gas turbine but there was a practical purpose since a few turbines running 24-7 would help inform their design
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Newton's Law of Griftational Attraction. Scam artists will drift to the larger grift. I never believed that Boom were serious, as the only SSTs we may see are glorified biz jets for the 0.001%. And even then I am skeptical.
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It sure doesn't sound like many, but turbines take an absolutely absurd amount of equipment, time, and labor to make. Every one of those blades has to go through several steps of high precision machining, coatings, and inspection that are pretty much at the limit of our material science. Quite a bit is still done by hand, because it's tricky to automate.
(Source: I'm an engineer in a semi-related field. Not an expert by far, but I've been around some of the processes)
Also, I just happened to stumble on the perfect video:
View: https://youtu.be/QtxVdC7pBQM
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I really want them to succeed but ... the only synergy I see is that a successful gas-turbine program might help fund their flight engine. Seems like a huge distraction for their engineers and, frankly, more like a Hail-Mary than a recipe for success.
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Isn't weight more important for something which is going to climb from zero to 60,000 feet, and stay there for many hours over something which is going to be shackled to concrete blocks at zero feet? Asking for a friend.
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Even stevens but that's not the point. Neither business model has anything to do with achieving anything useful with their product.
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Yeah, I get all that and have seen the video. To materially shift (or I guess divert) corporate focus to deliver six turbines is either a) a weird leadership decision or b) a hard business model pivot that they aren’t copping to yet.
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I mean sure your nacell and protection systems are easier to make when you're not weight constrained, but the material science of turbine cores is driven by pressure and temperature, not weight (with some applications like fighter jets also adding volume restrictions).
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I guess the only way their planes ever take to the skies again is in MSFS2024. At least it's better for the environment.
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I'm surprised they didn't pivot to making a military version and try and get the Pentagon to cough up
for it.
for it.
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As a matter of fact, yes. They are identical. Many ground based turbines are the exact same as their flying partners just with everything that's required for flight stripped off of them. Like the J79 for example flies. Take that J79 and remove everything it needs for flight and now you have an LM500 ground based turbine.
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Much better connected technofascists have that market locked up already.
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