Opinion
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.”
Opinion
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.”
Opinion
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.”
Opinion
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.”
Disclosure
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…”
Disclosure
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…”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Assertion Partly supported
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Jul 2027
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.”
What-if
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.”
Assertion Contradicted
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.”
Assertion Contradicted
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…”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Disclosure
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.”
Assertion Supported
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.”
Assertion Contradicted
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.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Assertion Supported
Scholl: Boom conducted the first supersonic Starlink livestream
“This was the first supersonic installation of Starlink, the first supersonic air-to-air livestream”
Assertion Contradicted
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.”
Disclosure
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 …”
Blake Scholl