No Rolls, No Royce, No Engine Choice Yet for Boom Supersonic

In 2021 Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl bragged about how his company's yet to be built aircraft, The Overture, would have some of the quietest engines available on the Pivot Podcast hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway .

Think that was a true statement?

**I make a lot of typos, I meant what is usually correct.**

Blake made some more noise by downright implying, if not fully claiming that, The Overture would be powered by Rolls Royce aircraft engines. That's a screeching claim, as loud as the afterburners that launched Concorde skyward. That was 2021, In 2022 RR is long gone from the Boom picture. But ironically the sonic boom of supersonic flight isn't the only major decibel issue for a supersonic airliner.

Jet fuel is heavy - around 7 lbs. a gallon - There is a finite amount of energy in that gallon of jet fuel. That energy needs to propel the weight of the whole aircraft, its payload - you, your stuff, cargo - and the weight of the fuel itself up into the sky. Ever hiked up a steep hill? Hard work, no? Planes have to do the same thing....Only they need to do it while ramming into the air ahead of them at hundreds of miles per hour. That's a drag. Literally, it's called aerodynamic drag.

This isn't beyond you. Stick your hand out the window of a moving car (carefully or maybe don't so I don't get sued) and you'll know exactly what this feels like. You feel the air pushing back against your hand. These forces are powerful enough for subsonic flight. They are much much greater for supersonic flight.

Flying supersonic requires a lot of heavy fuel. That's why Concorde could only fly 100 people about 4000ish miles with about the same ballpark fuel load as a 787 can fly 300 people 8000 miles. Theoretically this ratio should come down - though not entirely - with all the new tech available to Boom some 60 years after Concorde was literally drawn out on physical paper.

That said, Blake bragging about Rolls was quite affirming for the Boom project given the incredible thrust requirements of supersonic flight. Rolls built the legendary Olympus 593 Turbojet engines that made Concorde fly. It's the only engine maker with any legacy of commercial supersonic engine production, something complex AF.

But even way back in 2021 there was another moment Mr. Scholl really went off the deep-end for me. On that same pivotal podcast, Scott Galloway asked Blakey why Boom "chose" Rolls Royce engines. Blake's response was this cringy bit of fluff:

"Well, they are the Rolls Royce of aircraft engines."

Ok. Pause - Marketing speed to consumers is a cheap trick. "Hey you, rich busy person who likes to travel? Would you like to fly faster?" ....um...yeah.... Wow, brilliant pitch. But plane makers don't sell airliners to travelers now do they? None of you have some annoying newsletter about the latest deals from Boeing or Airbus clogging up your inbox.

Airlines buy airliners. Hot take Nate, I know. But Blake does know better. So what gives?

When you train to be a pilot there is a day that comes where the instructor gets out of the plane and says "you can do this." On your first solo, there is an incredible sequence where you advance the throttle. The RPMs spin up on the engine of the little prop plane you're now Pilot in Command of. The airspeed indicator kicks into action. 55 knots Nate, pull back on the yoke... and you're off. You're a magician.?You're for a moment conquering physics.?Or so you think. You're really playing nicely?with it - with tools given to you. That hits you real fast up there.?

Blake knows this "oh f**K moment."... He's a pilot. ?But where is that humble approach to being asked about Rolls Royce engines and his response is "Well, they are the Rolls Royce of aircraft engines." - That is bullshit. Just f**king absurd. Rolls Royce was still cleaning up a multi $B charge in a roll out clusterf**k with the Trent 1000 engines for the 787 when Mr. Scholl made this comment in 2021. You know who has that headache? Virgin Atlantic . You know who owns 49 percent of Virgin Atlantic? A small little mom and pop MEGA airline known as Delta Air Lines .

My guess is that big boss man CEO? Ed Bastian at Delta did not or would not like hearing the CEO of Boom play that card. Delta moved heaven and earth to help Virgin deal with "premature turbine degradation" on their Trent 1000 equipped Dreamliners.?

And remember, The Overture has the range (barely) to do most of The US East Coast to some of WESTERN Europe despite what the Boom website markets. Is it wise to risk pissing off the kingpin?of a major airline alliance and transatlantic joint venture? Delta, 法航 , KLM Royal Dutch Airlines , and Virgin are a big chunk of transatlantic flying. Boom needs this SkyTeam to succeed. Period. No orders yet! We'll see.

And as it turned out anyway, Boom doesn't even have a Rolls Royce engine either. Though an option is apparently on the horizon. We'll see, but remember my question at the top of this article? What quiet engine is Blake even talking about?!?! - You know, recently someone went to jail over a pretty cool sounding concept: A full blood test from a single droplet of blood. I don't think we're in that territory with Boom.

Not yet anyway. But what this Overture engine ends up looking like is a very noisy issue its investors should really worry about.

Now some of you might claim I'm making a contradictory point in that Rolls Royce signals both confidence and calamity at the same time. Aviation is complex. Both are truth. Delta still does business with Rolls Royce. Delta made the RR Trent XWB powered Airbus A350 the flagship of its fleet. But I imagine Rolls isn't super haughty about its missteps with Delta.

Arrogance in aviation is deadly. Time and time again.