logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
13m 45s

Building A Supersonic Plane Company From...

Y Combinator
About this episode

Imagine flying from NY to London in just a few hours. That’s the future that Blake Scholl and his team at Boom Supersonic are working towards.


Blake started as a software engineer and pivoted mid-career to aviation. Now, he’s at the forefront of trying to bring back supersonic travel for all of us.


In this episode of Hard Tech, YC’s Jared Friedman visited Blake in the Mojave desert to find out how someone who didn’t have a background in aerospace engineering was able to build the first-ever independently developed supersonic plane.

Up next
Jul 10
Andrew Ng: Building Faster with AI
Andrew Ng on June 16, 2025 at AI Startup School in San Francisco.Andrew Ng has helped shape some of the most influential movements in modern AI—from online education to deep learning to AI entrepreneurship. In this talk, he shares what he’s learning now: why execution speed matte ... Show More
43m 57s
Jul 3
François Chollet: The ARC Prize & How We Get to AGI
François Chollet on June 16, 2025 at AI Startup School in San Francisco.François Chollet is a leading voice in AI. He's the creator of the Keras library, author of Deep Learning with Python, and the founder of the ARC Prize, a global competition aimed at measuring true general in ... Show More
34m 47s
Jul 1
Fei-Fei Li: Spatial Intelligence is the Next Frontier in AI
A fireside with Dr. Fei-Fei Li on June 16, 2025 at AI Startup School in San Francisco.Dr. Fei-Fei Li is often called the godmother of AI—and for good reason. Before the world had AI as we know it, she was helping build the foundation.In this fireside, she recounts the creation of ... Show More
44m 21s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2024
Boom: Supersonic speeds for everyday travel with Blake Scholl | E2006
This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at https://www.vanta.co ... Show More
1h 27m
Jul 2024
Shifts in Aviation Aftermarket Technology
Join us for an engaging conversation with David Bettenhausen, the founder and CEO of Aerotrax Technologies. David and Jim reconnect after meeting on a panel discussing digitization in the supply chain. David shares insights into his background, having launched Aerotrax from his V ... Show More
35m 46s
Apr 11
Robot Laborers Ahead
Although AI and robotics are distinctly different fields, together, the two are unlocking incredible new possibilities. One company that’s making waves in this area is Milpitas, California-based RoboForce, an AI robotics startup that has developed an advanced “Robo-Labor” system. ... Show More
19m 25s
Aug 2024
Recursion CEO Chris Gibson on Accelerating the Biopharmaceutical Industry With AI - Ep. 230
Techbio is a field combining data, technology and biology to enhance scientific processes — and AI has the potential to supercharge the biopharmaceutical industry further. In this episode of NVIDIA’s AI Podcast, host Noah Kravitz speaks with Chris Gibson, cofounder and CEO of Rec ... Show More
37m 55s
Jul 2024
The Revolutionary Impact of LiDAR in Civil Engineering – Ep 267
In this episode, I talk with Rebecca Swabey, P.Eng., CEO and co-founder at Equator Studios, about the fascinating world of LiDAR. We delve into its groundbreaking impact on civil engineering and project proposals, exploring how this game-changing technology is revolutionizing the ... Show More
36m 51s
Apr 11
The magic intelligence in the sky | Good Robot
This episode is part of a feed swap from our friend at Vox’s Unexplainable podcast. Good Robot is a miniseries hosted by Julia Longoria.Today’s episode, “The magic intelligence in the sky” examines how before AI became a mainstream obsession, one thinker sounded the alarm about i ... Show More
46 m
Feb 2024
The Problem with Boeing (and the Aviation Industry) ft. Mentour Pilot
In this episode we speak to  @MentourPilot about the aviation history, the problems with Boeing and the future.  INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/throughtheweb.podcast/ WATCH THE EPISODE: https://youtu.be/fLvRLvTKCSU Twitter: https://twitter.com/throughtheweb 00:00 - Who is M ... Show More
46m 2s
Jul 2024
What Are the Newest Innovations
In our latest episode, we welcome Dr. Ip-Shing Fan from Cranfield University, a leading expert in digital MRO and aviation transformation. Dr. Fan shares his journey from industrial engineering to aviation, highlighting the exciting developments at Cranfield, including their pion ... Show More
32m 36s
Jul 1
The Future of Hydrogen-Electric Propulsion with Siemens and Dovetail
Join Siemens VP Aerospace, Defense, and Marine Industry, Todd Tuthill, and Dovetail CEO, David Doral, and as they discuss the development of hydrogen-electric aircraft propulsion systems. This episode examines how Dovetail is converting existing aircraft to zero-emission vehicles ... Show More
43m 31s
Jul 2024
Concorde: Feeling supersonic
Some say it was the greatest ever feat of European engineering. A few even think that we wouldn’t have joined the European Economic Community without it. Others complained it ate up ten times as much as its original budget, and no-one else wanted it. Why did we decide to build Co ... Show More
39m 12s