Interview, Fireside Chat
How Blake Scholl Built The First Independent Supersonic Jet
- XB-1 Milestone: Boom Supersonic's XB-1 is the first independently developed supersonic jet in history, serving as a prototype to validate lessons required for a safe, passenger-capable airliner.
- The aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound (supersonic) using deployable technology.
- Future Product (Overture): The next step is the Overture airliner, designed to replace the legacy of the Concorde.
- Capacity & Speed: Carries ~65 passengers at Mach 1.7.
- Propulsion: Runs on 100% sustainable fuel.
- Sonic Boom Mitigation: Utilizes design features to prevent sonic booms from reaching the ground, enabling overland flight (a primary hurdle for past supersonic programs).
- Launch Timeline: Goal to begin commercial passenger operations by 2029.
- Pricing Strategy: Targets business-class fare pricing, not the inflated costs of the Concorde ($20,000+ tickets).
- Projected Routes:
- Tokyo to Seattle in 4.5 hours.
- New York to London in 3 hours 45 minutes.
- Historical Context & Economics:
- The Concorde (developed by France/UK in the 1960s) operated from the mid-1970s until 2003.
- Reason for Cessation: The program failed due to economic inefficiencies (high operating costs, small 100-seat capacity, low load factors) rather than technological impossibility.
- Boom's analysis concluded that supersonic travel is viable if the airline achieves sufficient aerodynamic, propulsive, and structural efficiency to justify business-class pricing for speed.
- Founder Profile & Origin:
- Blake Schull: Founder/CEO; former product manager at Groupon and software engineer at Amazon.
- Motivation: Driven by a personal goal to fly supersonic after seeing a Concorde in a Seattle museum; shifted focus from mobile e-commerce to aviation after realizing previous work lacked "purpose."
- Self-Education: Acquired aerospace knowledge via textbooks, Khan Academy (calculus/physics), and an airplane design class to challenge the "impossible" narrative.
- Team Strategy & Execution:
- Size: Currently a core team of 50 people.
- Composition: Recruited young, high-caliber talent from SpaceX and early-career Boeing engineers; avoided "corrupted" experts to maintain innovation.
- Networking Method: Schull built the team by asking contacts for their "top five" potential hires recursively until reaching top industry talent.
- Development Philosophy: Used a small test aircraft (XB-1) analogous to SpaceX's Falcon 1 to iterate cheaply before committing to the full airliner (analogous to Falcon 9/Overture).
- Founder Advice & Philosophy:
- Passion Over Credentials: Success requires personal passion that sustains founders through difficulty, not just technical degrees or industry tenure.
- Market Validation: Founders must mature the market concept alongside the product to ensure product-market fit.
- Bystander Effect: Many ambitious ideas fail because experts assume "if it's not happening, it must be impossible," whereas quantitative analysis often disproves qualitative doubts.
- Ambition: Founders should aim for their "personal red line" and choose causes large enough to sustain the hardship of high-stakes development.