Move fast and don't break (safety critical) things

bscholl.substack.com · 1,106 words · saved by 1 readers

XB-1 is the world’s first independently-developed supersonic jet, breaking the sound barrier for the first time in January, 2025. It was designed, built, and flown successfully by a team of just 50 people—compared to the hundreds or even thousands that would have been employed by a traditional big aerospace company. And we did this with roughly a tenth of the budget that would traditionally be required. People have marveled at how our small team of just 50 people at Boom designed, built, and successfully flew the XB-1, the world’s first independently developed supersonic jet. And we did this with about a tenth the capital as any other supersonic program. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Yet, reflecting on our journey, we realized if we’d known from day one what we know now, we probably could have built XB-1 three times faster for a third of the budget. We're carefully harvesting these development lessons learned for the Overture airliner

First in a series on lessons learned at Boom on how to develop hardware quickly and efficiently XB-1 is the world’s first independently-developed supersonic jet, breaking the sound barrier for the first time in January, 2025. It was designed, built, and flown successfully by a team of just 50 people—compared to the hundreds or even thousands that would have been employed by a traditional big aerospace company. And we did this with roughly a tenth of the budget that would traditionally be required. Yet, reflecting on our journey, we realized if we’d known from day one what we know now, we…

Move fast and don't break (safety critical) things

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