Jul 28, 2026 · 50m · y-combinator
Blake Scholl: Breaking the Supersonic Ban · Y Combinator
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
At Y Combinator's Startup School 2026, Boom Supersonic founder and CEO Blake Scholl presents how his company revived civil supersonic flight, detailing key technical and regulatory breakthroughs alongside foundational advice for ambitious startup builders.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The partners as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 1.9 The partners pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is the partners, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 42:39 Rejection of the hardware expertise premise
Blake bluntly rejects an audience question's premise, declaring that the claim that hardware requires older experienced engineers is a lie promoted by slow, dumb legacy companies.
Hardest push from the partners ▶ 33:15 Audience question on long runway and startup survivalThe submitted question confronts Blake directly about taking ten years to break the sound barrier and the extreme difficulty of convincing investors to fund deep tech.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 9:15 Explaining the Mach cutoff acoustic phenomenonBlake breaks down the physics of Mach cutoff, explaining how atmospheric refraction causes sonic shockwaves to curve upward and never touch the ground.
The partners hold their own ▶ 49:48 Session wrap-up by the event hostIn a pure presentation format without host debate, the event moderator closes out the session as Blake completes his final advice.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The partners as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The partners pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Stagnation of Modern Aviation | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Blake opens his keynote speech addressing the stagnation of modern commercial aviation since 1969. Because this is a solo keynote monologue, host expertise and pushback are scored at 0. | |
| Historical Impact of Faster Air Travel | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Blake explains the broader economic and cultural impact of the jet age and describes founding Boom despite skepticism from major industry figures like Jeff Bezos. | |
| Developing and Flying the XB-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Blake presents the video footage of the XB-1 prototype successfully breaking the sound barrier in the Mojave Desert without host involvement. | |
| Legalizing Supersonic Flight in the US | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Blake explains how Boom demonstrated the Mach cutoff principle to eliminate audible sonic booms on the ground, leading to bipartisan legislative support to legalize overland supersonic flight. | |
| Software-Driven Hardware Engineering | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Blake outlines Boom's philosophy of treating hardware engineering like software development by replacing manual spreadsheets with automated digital simulation tools. | |
| Vertical Integration and the Superpower Turbine | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Blake details Boom's vertical integration strategy in rapid prototyping and commercializing their propulsion technology as ground power turbines to finance aircraft development. | |
| Inspiring Future Generations and Building in Public | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Blake concludes the prepared presentation by highlighting the value of inspiring future engineers and answers an audience question rejecting the tech industry's obsession with 'why now'. | |
| Q&A: AI's Impact, Hiring Philosophy, and Regulations | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | Blake answers submitted audience questions regarding competing with China, software tools, hiring, and regulatory navigation, sharply criticizing legacy defense and entrenched industries. | |
| Q&A: Personal Passion, Early Lessons, and Learning | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Blake discusses learning difficult engineering disciplines from first principles, managing self-doubt, early lessons at Amazon, and rejecting AI doom narratives. | |
| Q&A: Startup Advice, Work-Life Harmony, and Conclusion | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | Blake aggressively refutes the premise that hardware engineering requires decades of experience, calling it a lie from legacy companies, before offering concluding thoughts on work-life harmony. |
Statements from this episode (26)
Scholl: Lockheed Takes Over Two Years to Build a Patriot Interceptor
“It now takes Lockheed more than two years to build a new Patriot missile interceptor.”
Scholl: US never progressed past supersonic airliner mock-ups before Boom
“Prior to boom, the closest the America ever got to a supersonic airliner was a mock-up.”
Scholl: Seven-hour jet flights turned Hawaii into a mainstream tourist destination
“Hawaii was simply not a tourist destination before the speed of the jet. It was the ability to get from the US to Honolulu in seven, 8:09 hours that turned Hawaii into a mainstream tourist destination.”
Scholl: Boeing is no longer building new or innovative airplanes
“Well, no, they're not even building new airplanes anymore, let alone innovative new airplanes.”
Scholl: Jeff Bezos passed on Boom's 2015 seed round
“One of my very many failed investor pitches was in 2015 when Jeff Bezos passed on our seed round at Boom. And then he wrote the 2015 Amazon shareholder letter about how there's certain things that only big companies can do. And he cited airliners as one of the…”
Scholl: Boom's XB-1 is the first independently developed supersonic jet
“Last year, XB-One became the first independently developed jet to break the sound barrier, more than a decade after founding the company.”
Scholl: Boom's board ordered him to shut down with seven days cash
“There was a moment where we got down to seven days of cash and the board told me to shut the company down.”
Scholl: XB-1 Broke Sound Barrier Six Times With No Ground Boom
“XB one broke the sound barrier on two flights, six times through the sound barrier. Each time, no audible sonic boom in the ground.”
Scholl: US legalized supersonic flight 115 days after XB-1 broke sound barrier
“And so it was about 24 hours from breaking the sound barrier to be invited to the West Wing, and a 115 days from breaking the sound barrier to an executive order making supersonic flight legal again in the U.S.”
Scholl: Supersonic flight legalization passed the US House unanimously
“After the executive order, a bill dropped in the House and the Senate to make the supersonic legalization permanent. It passed the House Unanimously. And just last week, it got out of the Senate Commerce Committee again with a unanimous vote.”
Scholl: Boom's XB-1 is the first plane landed solely using augmented reality
“The first human piloted airplane landed solely on augmented reality with no natural view of the runway.”
Scholl: Boom's proprietary software cuts engine blade design time to real-time
“And Blade Runner allows us with really just a couple engineers to change a blade design in real time and see exactly how it's going to behave structurally and aerodynamically. This reduces literally to real time, a process that previously would have taken doze…”
Scholl: Boom machines digital engine prototypes in 24 hours in-house
“So we chose to build our own machine shop, and now we can go from a digitally designed engine part to a prototype part in about 24 hours.”
Scholl: Major aerospace incumbents lack co-located design and manufacturing shops
“This is a room that does not exist at GE or Rolls-Royce or Boeing or any other large aerospace company.”
Scholl: Boom will deliver its first natural gas turbine within 12 months
“The first super power turbines under construction right now and goes to the first customer in less than 12 months.”
Scholl: Boom conducted the first supersonic Starlink livestream
“This was the first supersonic installation of Starlink, the first supersonic air-to-air livestream”
Scholl: Boom's underlying technology existed ten years before the company launched
“The technology for supersonic flight existed actually a long time before Boom was founded. Technologically, the company could have been created 10 years earlier, but nobody started it.”
Scholl: The US cannot beat China by repatriating legacy manufacturing
“Is it possible for America to actually compete with China on manufacturing at scale? Yes, absolutely. The but we have to do it smartly. It won't work to try to repatriate the manufacturing that left the US.”
Scholl: Douglas Aircraft in 1921 was the last startup to build airliners
“The last company entrepreneur founded that went on to build a commercial airliner was Douglas Aircraft in 1921.”
Scholl: Boeing and Lockheed Martin have terrible corporate cultures
“And it has only kind of big companies, Boeing, Lockheed, et cetera, that are really terrible cultures.”
Scholl: The FAA approved Boom's XB-1 flight permit in just 90 minutes
“The approvals process for XB-One, that even for an R&D airplane can stretch on for months, actually happened in 90 minutes. From when we said we think we're ready to fly, and FAA said, here's the paperwork, we agree, go. We got the first ever permit for flying…”
Scholl: Amazon's board and internal staff laughed at Jeff Bezos over AWS
“He was laughed at internally and laughed at by his board when he launched Amazon Web Services. He was laughed at by the world for e-commerce.”
Scholl: Boom needs more software engineers post-AI because development costs dropped
“At Boom, we need far more software engineers in a post AI world. They would need it in a pre AI world. Why? Because the cost of software development has dropped. Anybody, including hardware engineers can now become a coder. And we need software engineers to ma…”
Scholl: The need for deep hardware experience is a lie by legacy companies
“This is one of these lies told by old people at big, dumb companies, and it's just not true. And by the way, all those people suck. So don't worry about it. Go build real things.”
Scholl: Boom engineers must consult experienced practitioners before solving known problems
“It is totally ok for a young engineer to do something they've never done before, just the way it's ok for them to do something that nobody has ever done before. But, ah, but if somebody has done it before in the world, ah, a rule is you have to go find one of …”