Prufrock TBM Family
Boring Company's Tunnel Boring Machine Lineage
Prufrock-1 (2020) → Prufrock-2 (2021, 2.28-mile single drive at Westgate). Prufrock-3 (2023) introduced 'The Monster' tilting cradle launch — bores can start within 24 hours of arrival on site, eliminating launch shafts. Prufrock-4 in test 2024-2026: 797,000 lbs, 4.7M lbs thrust (~90% of Falcon Heavy liftoff thrust), target 7 miles/day in hard-rock geologies.
Engineering features: continuous mining with simultaneous segment liner installation (vs traditional stop-start TBMs); 'Zero-People-In-Tunnel' (ZPIT) autonomous operation. Lower bore diameter than traditional municipal TBMs reduces costs. Claimed cost target $8 million/mile vs traditional municipal/federal range $500 million-$2.5 billion/mile; achieved real-world costs $10-27 million/mile per the LVCC Loop $52.5 million / 1.7-mile baseline.
Report #85 patent-attribution check: the report's claim that TBC owns aerospace-grade dual-use patents (US 7,533,794 superplastic titanium; US 11,962,186 rotary-electric turbojet) was verified false — both patents are assigned to The Boeing Company per Google Patents/USPTO. The TBC patent portfolio includes legitimate continuous-mining and segment-erection patents but NOT the aerospace/turbojet dual-use IP the report's H1 PARTIAL CONFIRM relied on.
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