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Boom is trying to build their own engine for the full size aircraft. That's tough. The number of groups that have built a reliable high-performance jet engine i

Boom is trying to build their own engine for the full size aircraft. That's tough. The number of groups that have built a reliable high-performance jet engine is very small. China still has trouble doing it. The XB-1, the 1/3 scale model, uses standard General Electric J85 engines.[1] Old, reliable, not too expensive, and used by many prototypes over many decades. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric_J85 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric_J85

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> Boom is trying to build their own engine for the full size aircraft. That's tough It echoes my criticism of Virgin Galactic checks notes ten years ago. That said, Boom started dancing with the DoD in ‘22. That’s a deep pot of cash, and could help make up for inexperience.
- avn2109 2y ago
  Surely there is somebody with enough brains in the Pentagon to diversify their supplier base away from the moribund Boeing-esque incumbents, right? If they haven't learnt this lesson post-SpaceX, when are they going to figure it out? A couple billion bucks is pocket change to the DoD, they literally "lose" it in their couch cushions, and it could eventually be the difference between "viable domestic defense aerospace industry" and "buy threaded steel nuts for $9000 each, with an 18 month lead time and 5000 pages of paperwork."
fransje26 2y ago
> Boom is trying to build their own engine for the full size aircraft. Hahahaha. No. That China still has trouble is one thing. The fact that Russia also has issues, with around 80 years of experience, tells you everything you need to know about how non trivial the task is.
- fragmede 2y ago
  Then again, SpaceX managed to pull their thing off, using modern tooling and some of the world's best rocket engineering teams. Russia and China, with all of their expertise don't have SpaceX's capabilities either. Supersonic jet engineering isn't exactly the same thing as rocket engineering, but they're related.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> Boom is trying to build their own engine for the full size aircraft. That's tough It echoes my criticism of Virgin Galactic checks notes ten years ago. That said, Boom started dancing with the DoD in ‘22. That’s a deep pot of cash, and could help make up for inexperience.

avn2109 2y ago
Surely there is somebody with enough brains in the Pentagon to diversify their supplier base away from the moribund Boeing-esque incumbents, right? If they haven't learnt this lesson post-SpaceX, when are they going to figure it out? A couple billion bucks is pocket change to the DoD, they literally "lose" it in their couch cushions, and it could eventually be the difference between "viable domestic defense aerospace industry" and "buy threaded steel nuts for $9000 each, with an 18 month lead time and 5000 pages of paperwork."

fransje26 2y ago

> Boom is trying to build their own engine for the full size aircraft. Hahahaha. No. That China still has trouble is one thing. The fact that Russia also has issues, with around 80 years of experience, tells you everything you need to know about how non trivial the task is.

fragmede 2y ago
Then again, SpaceX managed to pull their thing off, using modern tooling and some of the world's best rocket engineering teams. Russia and China, with all of their expertise don't have SpaceX's capabilities either. Supersonic jet engineering isn't exactly the same thing as rocket engineering, but they're related.