United’s SST Order: No, It’s Not Concorde Phase II
Almost on que, right after last week’s Monday Insight regarding how the failure of the Aerion business jet project was not an indicator of supersonic demise, United announced an order for up to 50 Boom airliners.
That made us feel pretty good.
Forecasting Means Running Counter To The Consensus. We would point out that Boyd Group International was the only aviation consulting and research firm to have projected a positive market potential for the Boom Overture airliner.
Back in 2015-2016, when presented with the concept, and after exploring the foundational assumptions, it was clear that this was not another excursion into fantasy, but one that made core market sense. In particular, Boom was aimed at an airplane that would improve the time-efficiency of air travel.
This intrinsically involved the need for flight speed exceeding that of sound as one of the design imperatives.
Unlike the Concorde, Aerion, and other projects, the goal was not to simply build a flying machine that could pop through the sound barrier.
It was also a concept that was to rely on ambient technology… including powerplants.
Boom? In Our Fraternity? There were some raised eyebrows back in 2016 when we included Boom along with Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, Bombardier and Mitsubishi in the global airliner manufacturer segments of the International Aviation Forecast Summit. Boom who? Was the question. Most people had not heard of the company. They have now.
Asking Hard Questions Is Not Negativity. But Don’t Start With Trendy Answers. There still is a lot of skepticism regarding the Boom Overture. That is understandable… it’s five years away, and a lot can happen in the air transportation industry. Those kinds of concerns are positive and natural to explore.
But the one thing that gets really old is the oh-so-confident comparisons to the Concorde. Other than being supersonic, the Concorde has no commonality with the Boom project. None. Not in regard to technology. Not in regard to market mission. Not in regard to the air transportation system it will operate within. Not in regard to airline economics.
Not in regard to anything.
It is flat-out ridiculous to compare an airliner that rolled out of the hangar in 1967 with one that will be flying in 2026.
Yes, lots challenges ahead for Boom. But in the meantime, the interest from United and Japan Airlines will have other carriers looking.
Nobody anymore is asking, Boom who?
At BGI we are proud to have been associated with this breakthrough aviation leader.
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This Week’s Aviation Unscripted
A Review: The CCP-Pandemic Damage To U.S. Airports & Aviation
It’s a hoot watching some sectors of the media desperately scrambling to find the rewind button.
Back in August, an Aviation Unscripted video covered the background of how the criminals running China colluded to cover-up the corona virus epidemic in Wuhan. The evidence and events were as obvious as a Big Mac at a vegan wedding.
We reviewed the major damage that the CCP-Wuhan pandemic had inflicted on U.S. airports. We recommended that airports and communities start taking stock, and consider options to go after the estimated $150 billion in Chinese investment in the U.S. And do keep in mind that if it’s a Chinese company, the CCP – the political party running China and which caused this disaster – is involved. These businesses are fair game.
But most of the media simply declared that such data were “debunked.” They issued clear directions: This virus simply came from a pangolin or another infected creature in a wet market. No evidence of any hanky-panky on the part of the low lifes running China.
Oops. Maybe There’s More. Let’s get politically-incorrect, but functionally accurate: some major news outlets went to great lengths to twist the facts, or just ignore them, and instruct we, the Great Unwashed out in TV land, to take their word for it. No, little people, it didn’t come from Wuhan, not really. No, you peons, the WHO and the CCP didn’t dither, cover-up and allow the epidemic to expand. Don’t dare look stupid to imply that our reporting is bogus.
One supposed “news magazine” went to lengths to interview a noted virologist, who categorically denied the Wuhan Institute of Virology could have had anything to do with the pandemic. What the award-winning interviewer left out was that the guy was running an organization that was actually funding and working with the Institute. Just a little conflict of interest.
Holy Lab Leak, Batman… now it seems that the evidence has come over the transom that the CCP and the WHO, and yes, 
some of the talking heads in the media, were flat out lying. More and more evidence, and more and more “experts” backtracking what they told us last year with total confidence.
Now with renewed calls for demanding recompense from the CCP, it would be appropriate to once again review the background and facts regarding how this pandemic was allowed to financially torpedo airlines and airports across the USA.
There is no doubt that the CCP is not only criminally responsible for this pandemic, but financially liable. U.S. communities need to go for their financial throats.
Log on to Aviation Unscripted this Thursday, June 10. We’ll be rerunning the August video, containing a lot of now un-debunked facts.
Another reason to question a lot of what some corners of the media are spouting.
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