In 2007, Blake Scholl, a twentysomething US software engineer from the early days of Amazon, climbed into a retired Concorde.
asserted
Scholl → climb → Concorde
“I remember thinking, why is this amazing machine not at an airport?” he tells me.
asserted
he → think → me
He then put a Google alert on “supersonic flight” — wanting to be the first to know when he could buy a ticket.
uncertain
he → put → ticket
Years went by and no alert came through.
asserted
alert → go → ?
“Nobody was making any credible effort,” he says.
asserted
he → make → effort
“So I thought I would get into the research and realise there was a good reason that nobody was doing it.”
asserted
nobody → think → it
He found none.
asserted
He → find → none
Scholl then took matters into his own hands: spending only a year between quitting his job and starting his supersonic flight company, Boom, in 2014, he went from knowing nothing to teaching himself the fundamentals of aerospace engineering and learning how to model the aeroplane.
asserted
he → take → aeroplane
This month, his company finished assembling the core of Symphony, the first engine built to bring back supersonic passenger flight.
asserted
company → finish → flight
It’s set to be turned on for the first time next month.
asserted
It → set → time
“This is the first large-scale supersonic core since the Olympus 593,” Scholl explains.
asserted
Scholl → explain → Olympus
The Olympus 593 engine was built by Rolls-Royce in Bristol.
asserted
engine → build → Bristol
So why did we stop in Britain?
asserted
we → stop → Britain
And why is the next one being built in America?
asserted
one → build → America
British Airways’ last commercial Concorde landed at Heathrow in 2003.
asserted
Concorde → land → 2003
In 2000 an Air France Concorde ran over debris on the runway at Charles de Gaulle.
asserted
Concorde → run → Gaulle
A burst tyre ruptured a fuel tank and the plane crashed into a hotel, killing 113 people.
asserted
plane → rupture → people
Concorde returned to service just as 9/11 gutted transatlantic premium travel, and both airlines retired it in 2003.
asserted
airlines → return → 2003
“Imagine you went back to 1969.
asserted
you → imagine → 1969
We flew Concorde for the first time, and we landed on the Moon for the first time…
asserted
we → fly → time
I don’t think you could find anyone who would say, oh, we won’t be able to go back to the Moon.
uncertain
we → think → Moon
And yet that’s what happened, for really no good reason.”
asserted
what → ’ → reason
The deeper problem, he continues, is that Concorde was built for national prestige, not for passengers.
asserted
Concorde → continue → passengers
“It was a taxpayer-funded project without any commercial voice saying, hey, does this make any sense?”
asserted
this → fund → sense
What they built was, he explains, “very much an impressive tech demo”.
asserted
he → build → What
It was also “a 100-seat aeroplane with 100 uncomfortable seats”, and by its final years a return ticket to New York cost £8,292 (£16,000 in today’s money).
asserted
ticket → cost → money
Scholl puts half of the blame on “socialism and politics”.
asserted
Scholl → put → socialism
But America, he admits, played its part too.
asserted
he → admit → part
With no supersonic jet of its own, it banned supersonic flight over land and “told everybody the sonic boom was terrible and unsolvable”.
asserted
boom → ban → everybody
With speed no longer something to compete on, the industry settled into two giants.
asserted
industry → compete → giants
“Boeing doesn’t do anything unless Airbus does it.
asserted
Airbus → do → it
Airbus doesn’t do anything unless Boeing does it…
asserted
Boeing → do → it
the whole industry just gets fat and dumb.”
asserted
industry → get → ?
That explains why Concorde stopped.
asserted
Concorde → explain → ?
It doesn’t explain why Britain has made no serious attempt to build its successor.
asserted
Britain → explain → successor
The barrier, it seems, is money, and also the appetite for risk.
asserted
it → seem → risk
“Every passenger wants supersonic flight so long as it is safe, comfortable, affordable and quiet”
asserted
it → want → flight
Rolls-Royce, Boom’s original engine partner, walked away in 2022, saying it had completed its contract, and Boom said its design wasn’t the right fit.
asserted
design → walk → contract
Reaction Engines, the Oxfordshire firm behind SABRE, a hypersonic engine once seen as Britain’s great hope, went into administration in 2024.
asserted
Engines → see → 2024
British aerospace is dominated by the kind of incumbents Scholl blames.
asserted
Scholl → dominate → incumbents
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
