4 ms·

As I am currently sitting on a flight from Tokyo to SFO I would greatly appreciate the flight taking half the time. Boom should be as efficient current aircraft

As I am currently sitting on a flight from Tokyo to SFO I would greatly appreciate the flight taking half the time. Boom should be as efficient current aircraft. They will operate at 60K feet where the drag is much less and fly for less time. Their engines are being designed to run on 80% biofuels. But let's see how it turns out in the end.

GuB-42 2y ago
Are you travelling first class? If you are not, then you are probably not making the right comparison. Supersonic travel will absolutely not be for those who are flying economy right now and complaining about reclining, legroom, and crying babies. The kind of things that make flights feel very long, and yet, that's how most people fly despite much superior alternatives, because it is cheaper. Judging by how much it cost to fly on Concorde, it is reasonable to assume that a supersonic ticket will be equivalent in price to first class, or at least a very good business class. It means a seat that can recline 180°, good enough to sleep on, an internet connection suitable for remote work, as I expect it to become standard in the near future, a decent meal and some privacy. In these conditions, saving a few hours may not be as desirable as it is in economy class. Knowing that in order to shorten your trip, you will be sacrificing some of that comfort, or pay even more, maybe getting close to private jet territory.
- myrandomcomment 2y ago
  In this case, yes, upgraded with miles to first. I have made this fight ~500 times over the last 15 years, in coach, premium, business and first. While first is nice, the hours back are still worth more.
  - GuB-42 2y ago
    Good point then. I have always traveled coach, and should I fly first class, I would definitely want my flight to last as long as possible, for the experience, but I guess the novelty wears out. But 500 flights is crazy, one flight every 10 days for 15 years... I certainly understand why you would want to fly supersonic. But now I am curious... why would someone fly that much with the remote communication abilities we have now? I heard that in order to do business in Japan, it is important to be there, so I guess that if you want to come back home sometimes, it is hard to avoid, but still, that's a lot of time flying.
    - myrandomcomment 2y ago
      One bit of clarification, I am counting the flight both ways. On average I would fly to Japan from SFO one a month, sometime twice. I would always have some work in Japan then half the time I would need to also fly to Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, NZ, etc. 1. The remote calls have gotten better but 15+ years ago not so much. 2. Timezone and remote calls are hard. 3. Face to face is very important to be able to build understanding and also judgement (you need to read the room, which you cannot do over a call). 4. Building relationships requires time not in a meeting, dinner or drinks with a client. 5. Having a relationship with your local team requires the same. 6. In Asia the foreigner flying moves the needle. It is a sign of respect for the customers that you value and will support them. 7. Languages. Unless you are fluent in the local language remote meetings are difficult. 8. Nature of the company. Im my case all 3 companies were startups. They are a risk for the customer. Your willingness to be there helps them feel more comfortable with the risk. Durning the pandemic there was no flying of course and it was great to be home. I now have a new startup and we just started doing business in Japan at the start of this year. I have hired the same local team that I have worked with at 3 companies. They are amazing! However by the end of this year I will have visited 6 times. Reestablishing the connections lost durning the pandemic has already moved the needle enough that it will materially affect the success of my startup. To be fair, come next year I do not feel I will need to visit every month, but once a quarter is going to be required. For me cutting flights times in 1/2 is a major win. As to first class, yes the novelty goes away. It is just another segment of a very long day.
fransje26 2y ago
> Boom should be as efficient [as] current aircraft. Don't know where this so-called efficiency should come from, but this is a statement that doesn't seem to be based in reality. Except for the techno-bro startup take that the incumbents are so imbued with themselves that they dropped the ball, which rational explanations are put forward to explain how the current manufacturers are doing a bad job? To fly at Mach 2 (or 1.8 as boom now seems to be targeting once they realised the difficulty of the task ahead) you still have immutable laws of physics you need to overcome, and that's going to cost an unreasonable amount of fuel.

GuB-42 2y ago

Are you travelling first class? If you are not, then you are probably not making the right comparison. Supersonic travel will absolutely not be for those who are flying economy right now and complaining about reclining, legroom, and crying babies. The kind of things that make flights feel very long, and yet, that's how most people fly despite much superior alternatives, because it is cheaper. Judging by how much it cost to fly on Concorde, it is reasonable to assume that a supersonic ticket will be equivalent in price to first class, or at least a very good business class. It means a seat that can recline 180°, good enough to sleep on, an internet connection suitable for remote work, as I expect it to become standard in the near future, a decent meal and some privacy. In these conditions, saving a few hours may not be as desirable as it is in economy class. Knowing that in order to shorten your trip, you will be sacrificing some of that comfort, or pay even more, maybe getting close to private jet territory.

myrandomcomment 2y ago
In this case, yes, upgraded with miles to first. I have made this fight ~500 times over the last 15 years, in coach, premium, business and first. While first is nice, the hours back are still worth more.
- GuB-42 2y ago
  Good point then. I have always traveled coach, and should I fly first class, I would definitely want my flight to last as long as possible, for the experience, but I guess the novelty wears out. But 500 flights is crazy, one flight every 10 days for 15 years... I certainly understand why you would want to fly supersonic. But now I am curious... why would someone fly that much with the remote communication abilities we have now? I heard that in order to do business in Japan, it is important to be there, so I guess that if you want to come back home sometimes, it is hard to avoid, but still, that's a lot of time flying.
  - myrandomcomment 2y ago
    One bit of clarification, I am counting the flight both ways. On average I would fly to Japan from SFO one a month, sometime twice. I would always have some work in Japan then half the time I would need to also fly to Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, NZ, etc. 1. The remote calls have gotten better but 15+ years ago not so much. 2. Timezone and remote calls are hard. 3. Face to face is very important to be able to build understanding and also judgement (you need to read the room, which you cannot do over a call). 4. Building relationships requires time not in a meeting, dinner or drinks with a client. 5. Having a relationship with your local team requires the same. 6. In Asia the foreigner flying moves the needle. It is a sign of respect for the customers that you value and will support them. 7. Languages. Unless you are fluent in the local language remote meetings are difficult. 8. Nature of the company. Im my case all 3 companies were startups. They are a risk for the customer. Your willingness to be there helps them feel more comfortable with the risk. Durning the pandemic there was no flying of course and it was great to be home. I now have a new startup and we just started doing business in Japan at the start of this year. I have hired the same local team that I have worked with at 3 companies. They are amazing! However by the end of this year I will have visited 6 times. Reestablishing the connections lost durning the pandemic has already moved the needle enough that it will materially affect the success of my startup. To be fair, come next year I do not feel I will need to visit every month, but once a quarter is going to be required. For me cutting flights times in 1/2 is a major win. As to first class, yes the novelty goes away. It is just another segment of a very long day.

fransje26 2y ago

> Boom should be as efficient [as] current aircraft. Don't know where this so-called efficiency should come from, but this is a statement that doesn't seem to be based in reality. Except for the techno-bro startup take that the incumbents are so imbued with themselves that they dropped the ball, which rational explanations are put forward to explain how the current manufacturers are doing a bad job? To fly at Mach 2 (or 1.8 as boom now seems to be targeting once they realised the difficulty of the task ahead) you still have immutable laws of physics you need to overcome, and that's going to cost an unreasonable amount of fuel.