I wish them well but a startup building an airliner seems like an utterly impossible task.

On the plus side, the competition seems a bit lousy lately

dlcarrier 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

From an engineering perspective, it's a solved task. Designing an airplane is on par with designing a suspension bridge.

From a regulatory perspective, the layers of bureaucracy needed to get approval to build a bridge has nothing on starting up an airline manufacturing company. Once you have a company with a history of approval, you can practically do what you want, but getting to that point is nearly impossible.

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divyekapoor 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If the numbers are what they claim. They’re going to make it.

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DrewADesign 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Eh, if SpaceX did rockets… I wouldn’t be surprised if they could be very nimble compared to the big ones.

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rgmerk 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The difference is that there establishment space launch companies were basically monopolies using ancient technology and processes. That’s not true for commercial aviation, which is subject to pretty relentless cost pressures.

	▲	DrewADesign 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Seems like that’s what a lot of people say about a lot of legacy businesses though when facing pressure from a startup. Obviously doesn’t always work, but sometimes!

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a34729t 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Bullshit i cant hear you. Commcercial airliners are sold at a loss and are basically giant jobs programs. Modern jetliners are enormously efficient already; there has been a continuous race over the last century to this end.