korrents

What Blake Scholl thinks about design

@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.

13 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Blake Scholl has said — not written or endorsed by them.

13 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingA 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.

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

    Interesting

  3. Our readingAirliner 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.

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

    Interesting

  5. Our readingThe 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.

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

    aviation

    Interesting

  7. Our readingThe 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.

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

    Interesting

  9. Our readingBuilding 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.

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

    Interesting

  11. Our readingA 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.

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

    Interesting

  13. Our readingGood 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.

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

    aviation

    Interesting

  15. Our readingYou 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.

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

    product management

    Interesting

  17. Our readingIterating 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.

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

    startups

    Interesting

  19. Our readingGreat 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.

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

    Interesting

  21. Our readingAmerica 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.

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

    ChinaAmerica

    Interesting

  23. Our readingIn 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.

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

    Interesting

  25. 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.

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

    Interesting