What you see here is one man who is attempting to make history with his innovations in flute design, both utility and esthetic, which is ridiculously above his available budget, even after spending a million dollar fortune awarded for an unfortunate accident thanks to an infamous Boston injury attorney. This is a one man project in cooperation with factories in China and Thailand.

Having a background in fundamental physics, applied physics, geometry and math, Boris Popovich has been trying to use already existing technologies in the flute production and design. No, he did not invent the wheel, but he is simply asking why hasn’t “the wheel” been used here? There is so much advanced technology in the world, but the flute industry is kind of stubbornly sticking to outdated, and the word used is “traditional” design and methods just like Amish won’t plug in the power tools and use an engine to drive, and you see them in horse carriages around. Sure, it’s cute but come on, it’s 2025, and by the way, the word “handmade” is really a marketing word with no real meaning behind. All flutes are made pretty much in the same way.

There is a world of classical music, and yes, it’s awesome and classy, and the great composers of the past are still great, and it appears that it will remain so, with the exception of the AI which will soon be able to emulate the style of any composer, minus the soul, but that’s another topic. My point is that this classical music world, which in a way lives in the past, also tends to admire the handmade methods of the past, which have it’s limits, but that perpetuates a lot of the old inferior technology. Let’s not forget that in this technological era, all products on the market have replaceable parts available, except for the flutes 😂, and I must insert this emoji here, because it’s really like that. Every flute is “unique”, which means that you can’t simply get a replacement key if the old one breaks, and you can’t just replace the pads, as you can on any car breaks. But I ask why?

I don’t want to be a party pooper, but really, there is no mystery here. It’s just bad methods. Sure, the investment required could be larger than the future profit in many cases, and that’s why everything stays as it was for the past decades, with some minor improvements.

I am a bit vague about the actual utility inventions I am talking about, in order to protect my life’s work, and what I would like it to be my retirement income, but as soon as the patents are filed, you will know everything. Until then, all this blah blah is there to give you some reason to trust me that I have something awesome to offer to the woodwind industry.

What’s in it for you? Maybe not much more than a satisfaction that you were on the right side of flutemaking history, as thanks to hard working flute technicians, you can still enjoy playing the existing instruments. Maybe I am mostly trying to make life easier for the flutemakers, but there are going to be obvious benefits to the players. Imagine if the adjustments were easier and you could do them yourself with not much headache.

Enough said here. Any helpful comments or support welcome. Trolls not welcome.

Truly yours,

Boris Popovich