korrents

Blake Scholl

@blake-scholl · 22 positions · 0 changes of mind

Founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, the Denver company building the Overture supersonic airliner and its Symphony engine.

Blake Scholl did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    Half a century after Apollo and Concorde we can neither reach the moon nor fly faster than sound: the future stopped getting faster.

    Their wordsIn 1969, we landed on the moon for the first time and the same year we flew Concord, the faster than the speed of sound airliner. The future was supposed to be faster and better. where we're supposed to look forward to innovation in air and in space. And yet, half a century later, we can't go to the moon and we can't fly faster than the speed of sound.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:14 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 1st of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    A defence industry that needs more than two years to build a single missile interceptor can neither build the future nor win a war.

    Their wordsIt now takes Lockheed more than two years to build a new Patriot missile interceptor. This is crazy. This is no way to build the future and this is no way to win a war.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:49 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 2nd of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Airliner design has not progressed in fifty years — the newest jet is no faster and makes the world no more accessible than the one that opened the jet age.

    Their wordsBut if we fast forward half a century, this is the 787, their latest airliner, which by the way was launched more than 20 years ago. You can't spot the difference. It doesn't fly any faster. It doesn't make the world any more accessible.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:09 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 3rd of 22 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    When air travel doubles in speed the important changes happen on the ground: Hawaii was not a tourist destination until the jet made it reachable.

    Their wordsThose first jetliners truly did double the speed of what had come before them. And was they doubled the speed of air travel, the most important changes were on the ground. Hawaii was simply not a tourist destination before the speed of the jet.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:26 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 4th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    The incumbent manufacturers will never carry aviation into a supersonic age, because they have stopped building new aeroplanes at all.

    Their wordsWell, no. They're not even building new airplanes anymore, let alone innovative new airplanes.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 4:52 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 5th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    The way to settle an argument about how quiet supersonic flight must be is to remove the boom entirely, so there is nothing left to argue about.

    Their wordsby making the sonic boom disappear entirely, we are able to put aside a question that had long plagued people talking about supersonic flight, which is how quiet is quiet enough? If there's no boom at all, there's nothing to argue about.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 10:12 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 6th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    Building in a regulated industry is not a trap, because you can change the regulations — by building the thing and explaining why it is fine.

    Their wordsPeople talk about isn't it a bad idea to build in a regulated industry? Turns out you can change the regulations. And the way you do it is just by building the thing and communicating why it's okay.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 10:51 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 7th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    A team of fifty can build a supersonic jet only by making hardware development look like software development and driving down the cost of iteration.

    Their wordsThe key thing is to make hardware development look more like software development to reduce the cost of iteration both in the world of bits and in the world of atoms.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 12:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 8th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    Good software is modular, but a good aeroplane is the opposite — everything affects everything else, which is why hardware iteration has always been slow.

    Their wordsBut great airplanes are incredibly integrated and everything affects everything else. uh the the best airplane design is interplay of propulsion, of aerodynamics, of structures, of all kinds of optimizations, how you fit the systems into it.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 12:56 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 9th of 22 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    The engineering that lives in engineers’ spreadsheets is really baby software, and it should be written as real software, with the testing and integration that implies.

    Their wordsWe said all of this engineering that historically exists in spreadsheets really should exist in software. The spreadsheet engineering is like it's like baby software.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 13:49 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 10th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    You cannot find product-market fit for a supersonic jet by building one and seeing whether anybody likes it; it has to be worked out before anything is built.

    Their wordsYou can't get to product market fit on a supersonic jet by building it and seeing if anybody likes it. You have to analyze very carefully the art of the possible and also what will maximize the market opportunity.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 14:45 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 11th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Iterating through outside aerospace suppliers is close to impossible, which is why a hardware startup should own its own machine shop.

    Their wordsone of the most important things we discovered along the way is it's extremely difficult to iterate with outside suppliers, particularly outside suppliers in aerospace, which are let's just say I have no kind words for them. 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.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 15:50 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 12th of 22 in this recording

    startups

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    A supersonic engine can be sold on the ground as a power turbine, and that is how you finance an airliner nobody would otherwise fund.

    Their wordsThis is a supersonic engine adapted for ground power generation that can ship without the rest of the airplane, thereby generating the test data, the learnings, the reliability, and also the capital that we need to go big.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 18:07 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 13th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    Great ideas are not all taken: many multi-billion-dollar businesses were buildable years earlier and nobody built them for no reason other than that nobody did.

    Their wordsThere are many many unsolved problems in the world, many great ideas hiding in plain sight that were actually solvable that could have been multi-billion or multi-t trillion dollar businesses a while ago, but nobody's building them and not for any reason other than nobody went and did it.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 20:54 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 14th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    “Why now?” is the wrong question to make a founder answer — the honest answer can simply be that you started now.

    Their wordsso I I deeply believe that you should pick a problem that you want to go solve in the world and don't worry too much uh about the answer to why now. Uh the answer to why now can be because I started now.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 21:26 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 15th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    America cannot win manufacturing back by repatriating what left; it wins only by inventing the next wave of manufacturing and building that here.

    Their wordsit it won't work to try to repatriate uh the the manufacturing that left the US. Um that's a uh you you don't you don't beat China at its own game. What you do is invent the future, invent the next wave of manufacturing uh and build that here.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 21:54 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 16th of 22 in this recording

    ChinaAmerica

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    Most regulation does not come from anyone trying to keep the public safe but from an entrenched interest using government to shut its competitors down.

    Their wordsBy the way, this is the pattern in a lot of regulation. It doesn't come from like some well-meaning person trying to keep the public safe. It comes from some entrenched, frankly, lazy interest that doesn't want to have to compete and runs to DC or runs to the local regulator and tries to use the power of government to shut their competition down. I think this is deeply unethical, but it happens all the time.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 29:03 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 17th of 22 in this recording

    government

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    In a safety-critical industry the regulator should be recruited onto the team early, so that it is you and the regulator against the problem.

    Their wordsWhy? We engaged early. We made the regulators part of the team and we worked together. We made it boom plus FAA versus the problem, not Boom versus FAA.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 30:40 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 18th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    “Work on what you know” is the worst advice there is: knowledge can be acquired, but what you love cannot be changed.

    Their wordsSo I think the worst advice is like work on what you know. Uh what you know can be changed. Particularly in a world where you everyone has personalized AI tutors. Anybody with passion and dedication can learn new knowledge and learn new skills. But what you can't change easily is what you love.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 32:45 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 19th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    Cheaper software has increased the number of software engineers a company needs, not reduced it.

    Their wordsAt boom we need far more software engineers in a postAI world than we need 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 make sure the architectures are right and make sense and are coherent.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 41:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 20th of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  41. Our reading

    Becoming a deep expert makes you useless, because what an expert is steeped in is the past.

    Their wordsdon't try to become a deep expert. The moment you become an expert, what you're steeped in is the past and then you're completely useless.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 43:23 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 21st of 22 in this recording

    Interesting

  43. Our reading

    A young engineer may attempt what nobody has ever done, but if somebody has already done it they are obliged to call that person and hear their advice.

    Their wordsIt is totally okay for a young engineer to do something they've never done before just the way it's okay for them to do something that nobody has ever done before. But uh but if somebody has done it before in the world, uh our rule is you have to go find one of those people, call them, and ask them your advice. And you don't have to take it. You just have to hear it.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 43:39 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Blake Scholl: How 50 People Built a Supersonic Jetyoutube.com 22nd of 22 in this recording

    Interesting