Anyone here fly the Concorde?

[will2000]

Whatever happened to the Mach 25 plane they talked about years ago? NY to Tokyo in an hour.

[Don Kiyoti]

[quote spearmint]Amazing what a leap in technology so long ago and now grounded forever.New faster and better planes? No. Instead we get that horrifying Airbus A380 with 550 seats and potentially 850 which is no faster than the original jet airliners in 1952, the BOAC Dehavilland Comets.
You can add airplanes and air travel to the long list of things you don't understand.

Speed is way down the list of what's important in airliner design. Even back in the 1950s and 1960s, economy of operation was more important. Convair built the fastest airliner ever prior to the Tu-144 (which was faster than Concorde), the 990. It sold poorly because it used so much fuel. The amount of time saved by a slightly faster cruising speed is negligible, like the amount of time you save by driving 75 vs. 70 mph.

Notice that when Boeing proposed a fast airliner, the Sonic Cruiser, the airlines yawned. When Boeing proposed the economical 787 "Dreamliner," they sold hundreds.

[cbelt3]

What Don said. Passenger convenience in terms of time and distance are less a factor than cost. Passenger 'amenities' these days consist primarily of a free supply of breathable air. Heck, since they stopped feeding the cabin from the outside and started recycling, that air includes more free viruses and bacteria !

The airlines speak one language- money. They assume the only language their passengers speak is bovine. Mooo.

[Don Kiyoti]

Well in all fairness, part of the blame for the current misery that is air travel goes to us, the passengers. We wanted cheap, the airlines gave us cheap. You get what you pay for.

Anyway, Concorde was a fantastic airplane and I regret having never seen one in flight, much less having a ride on one.

[JoeH]

[quote Don Kiyoti]Well in all fairness, part of the blame for the current misery that is air travel goes to us, the passengers. We wanted cheap, the airlines gave us cheap. You get what you pay for.

Anyway, Concorde was a fantastic airplane and I regret having never seen one in flight, much less having a ride on one.
Unfortunately I was one of the minority who wanted good and reliable instead of cheap. So it has been close to 10 years since I last flew. Will only fly now if there is no alternative, and driving for a couple days is an alternative as far as I am concerned.

As for the Concorde, did manage to see one coming in to land a couple decades ago. But that was as close as I ever got.

[AAA]

[quote Don Kiyoti]Well in all fairness, part of the blame for the current misery that is air travel goes to us, the passengers. We wanted cheap, the airlines gave us cheap. You get what you pay for.

Anyway, Concorde was a fantastic airplane and I regret having never seen one in flight, much less having a ride on one.
Yeah, I'd like to see ticket prices triple or so. Too many people flying around for no good.

[Don Kiyoti]

[quote AAA][quote Don Kiyoti]Well in all fairness, part of the blame for the current misery that is air travel goes to us, the passengers. We wanted cheap, the airlines gave us cheap. You get what you pay for.

Anyway, Concorde was a fantastic airplane and I regret having never seen one in flight, much less having a ride on one.
Yeah, I'd like to see ticket prices triple or so. Too many people flying around for no good.
Are you trying to make some kind of point here? If so, what is it?

[SKYLANE]

There was a good program recently on the Discovery Channel (fairly certain it was Discovery Channel) on the Last Flight of the Concorde. Good hour to invest in watching some good footage from times of the Concorde. Watch for it, should replay some time again soon.

[Don Kiyoti]

There was also a very good NOVA on PBS which gets rerun from time to time on the race between the Soviets and the Europeans to develop the Tu-144 and Concorde. Lots of espionage going on in both directions. Apparently the crash of the Tu-144 at the Paris Airshow was the result of a near-collision between the Soviet SST and a French Air Force Mirage that was, um, observing. It was an overcast day so the Soviet pilots didn't see the Mirage until it was very close. They had to do a violent pitch down maneuver to avoid the Mirage which ended up overstressing their airplane, which came apart.

What's left of the American SST program can be seen at the Hiller Aviation Museum in California. It's part of the mockup of the Boeing 2707-200 which is the scaled-down (!) version of their proposal.

[Mac1337]

Did the government killed our SST? Vaguely remember it that way.