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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

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On-going manned test flights of Boom’s prototype supersonic plane inching towards the supersonic

During the on-going manned test flights of Boom’s one-third scale prototype supersonic plane, dubbed XB-1, the maximum flight speeds have been steadily increased as they company tests the plane’s design and structure.

[On October 7th on the fifth manned flight] Chief Test Pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg set a record for the XB-1 shod with GE J85-15 turbojet engines, taking it up to 17,800 ft (5,425 m) and as fast as Mach 0.69 (428 knots / 492 mph / 791 km/h, true airspeed) over its 50-minute-long test flight, marking the highest and the fastest it’s flown so far.

Boom tested its flutter excitation system (FES) at Mach 0.6 … which must be unnerving for a test pilot. The FES is a system that deliberately induces vibrations into an aircraft’s airframe to help engineers find potential structural issues, particularly at higher speeds. They do this so structural issues (that could cause flutter) don’t rear their ugly head mid-flight.

The plan is to do five more test flights before attempted to break the sound barrier.

At the completion of this testing the company will then begin manufacture of its full scale supersonic passenger plane, dubbed Overture, that will carry up to 80 passengers and will sell to airlines. It already has contracts and financial support from a number of major airlines, including United and Japan Airlines.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Related: Talking about new paradigms in transportation:

    I have been watching this company for a while now and it appears to be going to the correct direction.

    JOBY UPDATE: TOYOTA ALLIANCE

    “JOBY Aviation in my opinion is the leader in this new transportation market category. They are actually inventing the technology, the systems and the business model, and the point A to point B personal transportation market.

    A company to keep your eye on today and in the coming years. Do your due diligence.”

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/joby-update-toyota-alliance

  • Patrick Underwood

    Good luck to them with FAA certification. Many companies have completed testing of innovative aircraft, then gone bankrupt in the certification process.

  • GeorgeC

    Patrick Underwood; yes: both new type development and type certification timelines have taken longer and longer and longer. The youtube channels Mentour Pilot and Mentour Now go into easy to understand details on this in general and specifically for Boeing. This Boom company seems special in way
    they do development and testing. The way they are open to interviews and dumb questions.

  • GeorgeC opined:

    “This Boom company seems special in way
    they do development and testing. The way they are open to interviews and dumb questions.”

    It is generally a fault of highly-competent people, that they see their Vision as The Way, and everyone else should follow. Note that I am talking about people who *are* competent, as opposed to those who *imagine [fantasize?]* that they are competent. It may be that Boom leadership recognizes that to be successful, the People have to be on-board; cf SpaceX.

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