Boom Supersonic's founder explains that the Concorde was a commercial failure. However, a mere 30% improvement in fuel economy—achievable with modern materials and aerodynamics—is the key threshold that makes supersonic travel profitable at business-class prices.
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Boom's founder describes Mojave's aerospace community as "hacking on airplanes" like software. This mindset involves resourceful, rapid, and iterative prototyping, challenging the slow, traditional processes in capital-intensive industries and enabling faster progress with less capital.
The cost for a given level of AI performance halves every 3.5 months—a rate 10 times faster than Moore's Law. This exponential improvement means entrepreneurs should pursue ideas that seem financially or computationally unfeasible today, as they will likely become practical within 12-24 months.
Boom Supersonic is adapting its proprietary jet engine, originally for supersonic flight, into "SuperPower" ground turbines for AI data centers. This strategic move provides a path to profitability years sooner, generating the massive capital required to complete its Overture passenger airliner project.
Instead of building its final passenger jet, Boom first developed a smaller, sub-scale prototype to prove its Mach 2.2 technology. This startup-like, sequential approach proves the core concept at a much lower cost, making the capital-intensive project more manageable and fundable.
The pace of AI-driven innovation has accelerated so dramatically that marginal improvements are quickly rendered obsolete. Founders must pursue ideas that offer an order-of-magnitude change to their industry, as anything less will be overtaken by the next wave of technology.
SpaceX previously pitched using rockets for ultra-fast intercontinental travel (e.g., NYC to Tokyo in 30 minutes). While not a current focus, this concept reveals a core strategy: framing its technology as a replacement for massive existing markets, like the entire commercial airline industry. This justifies enormous valuations and ambitious long-term goals.
The fundamental physics of high-speed travel dictates that the faster you go, the farther from the Earth's surface you need to be for safety. This constraint meant Hyperloop would require extensive, economically unviable tunneling, making it more expensive than equivalent air travel.
Boom Supersonic accelerates development by manufacturing its own parts. This shrinks the iteration cycle for a component like a turbine blade from 6-9 months (via an external supplier) to just 24 hours. This rapid feedback loop liberates engineers from "analysis paralysis" and allows them to move faster.
Conceding that competitor BYD has a cost advantage from vertically integrated battery production, Ford's CEO revealed a counter-strategy: designing motors and gearboxes so efficient they require 30% less battery capacity to achieve the same range, thereby bypassing the core battery cost problem.
Critics question whether deep tech startups are doing "novel science." However, the strategic goal is often not a new discovery, but making a proven but abandoned technology (like nuclear fission) economically viable and scalable again. This demonstrates that for reindustrialization, effective execution on proven tech can be more valuable than chasing purely scientific breakthroughs.
