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A sad moment in aviation history

Yep, I know it was supported by taxpayers’ money (boo, hiss) but I think one would have a piece of brain missing not to feel a pang of sadness that Concorde, the world’s only supersonic jet airliner, has landed for the last time at Britain’s Heathrow airport. An incredible plane, beautiful and able to take folk across the Atlantic at a speed unthinkable to our ancestors.

As a free marketeer, I do of course recognise that state-backed endeavours such as this are largely indefensible, particularly as only the rich could take advantage of something paid for by the poorest taxpayer. But on a more upbeat note, let’s hope that in the years to come, the possibility of superfast transport such as this remains a reality, and not just the stuff of science fiction novels.

And that is why, like Dale Amon and other contributors to this blog, I am eagerly awaiting the start of the race for the X-:Prize. You can read about all the privately-funded space ventures involved here

The age of Concorde is over. But another age may hopefully be about to begin. Chocks away!

A glorious sight

16 comments to A sad moment in aviation history

  • Brian Micklethwait

    Thanks for this Johnathan. We couldn’t let today go by without a nod to the big Franco-British bird. What an extraordinary story. To think: Britain and France of all nations …

    Every time I saw its perfect shape thundering into Heathrow of an early evening I thought of P. J. O’Rourke’s observation on board a US Navy battleship, along the lines of: “Now THAT’s how to waste public money!”

  • Dale Amon

    The saddest thing of all is that BA refused to sell them to Richard Branson. They may have begun their lives in socialism, but they could have spent their twilight years in the fine care of the UK’s finest capitalist.

    A toast to a bird of incredible beauty. Her like will not soon be seen again.

  • mark holland

    Purely by chance I saw it coming in to land on Monday evening. I had to pick up the outlaws from Heathrow for 18:20. I got up there earlyish so I went for a wander in Windsor. I’d not been over to the Eton side before and strolling back towards the river there she went wheels and nose down. I’d never seen her that way before. Lucky the wind was blowing that way I guess.

    The best time was one morning I was cycling northwards from Staines towards where I used to live in West Drayton (aug ’99 – aug 2000 this would have been). I remember it was about 10am and I was just riding past the end of the runway when this humungous roar let loose. Concorde went over my head at what felt like arms length. Kapow! Having grown up in Cornwall I’d been used to hearing its boom but it was miles out to sea at the time but now I could almost reach out and touch it.

    Still a waste of money mind you!

  • G Cooper

    I only half agree with Dale Amon.

    He is quite right that Virgin should have been allowed to continue with Concorde – after all, these planes were only ever effectively on loan to BA.

    He is quite wrong, however, about Branson (as anyone watching last night’s Question Time won’t need reminding).

    Branson is a remarkable self-publicist who has ridden his luck exceptionally well. But he is very far from the success that his image makers like to portray – though they have done their work well with the general public.

    One day the birds that come flapping home to roost, won’t be powered by jet engines.

  • Too damn noisy, too damn expensive… but it was damn beautiful.

    Aaaargh.

    In February, The Mrs. and I are coming coming Over The Pond to visit friends and Edinburgh Castle, in no specific order. (Yeah, we hear that Scotland in February is pleasant and balmy, shuddup — we used to live in Chicago: we know cold and dreary thank you.)

    Anyway, no way we could have afforded FIVE Concorde tickets (unless we’d made an um, impromptu visit to BankOne en route to the airport).

    So it’ll be steerage on American or Continental for us, as usual.

  • Why do the TWO du Toit’s need FIVE tickets? Have Americans really got that big?

  • Ann

    No one has mentioned that the plane featured prominently in a Dr. Who episode, “Time Flight”, from 1982.

  • Katherine

    Patrick Crozier:

    Of course we are. All of us. We also let people die on the streets if they do not have health insurance and shoot all blacks who try to come up to Beverly Hills. If you don’t belive me, check with the French

  • Y’know, one particular “what if” was conjectured regarding the Concorde, such as how it would have fared if the US Congress had voted in 1971 to subsidize the SST project Boeing had embarked upon. How would have the Concorde fared in competition with the Boeing 2707? One hint: 2.7 vs. 2.2.

    But overall, it was a good thing they didn’t. We would have been stuck with a huge bill too, like the British and French taxpayers had for a long time (is it paid off yet?).

    And 9/11 didn’t just kill the Concorde…it also killed Boeing’s Sonic Cruiser project. I think it would have been the next best thing to an SST, except it would have operated on THIS side of the sound barrier and have cut travel times by 20%.

    Do we have the tech to produce an economically feasible fast aircraft? At this point in time, probably not. the working phrase is economically feasible. But the next step might come instead from the Orient Express if that is followed to conclusion.

    As long as the damn terrorists can be beaten first….

  • andy janes

    ‘Do we have the tech to produce an economically feasible fast aircraft?’

    Probably in a few years time. DARPA is working on a project with Northrup to produce a quiet supersonic aircraft (I’m unsure of the details but appreantly by clever areodynamic shapeing it should be possible to build a SST that’s no lounder than a subsonic one)

    My guess is that we’ll see a supersonic bizjet in a few years time, but probably not before a commercial sub-orbital rocket.

  • Jacob

    ‘Do we have the tech to produce an economically feasible fast aircraft?’

    It is not only the economic problem – it is also the technical problem to produce a quiet plane, that will not be forbidden to fly over land.

    Didn’t the Concorde’s planners and engineers know about that problem ? Did they know, but decided to go ahead and waste our money anyway ?

    I cannot applaud this instance of government folly and waste, and dissregard of technical and economic reality. I don’t know why so many level headed people wax romantic over this bird, it seems to me that it’s building didn’t even involve any technological breakthrough. It is more in the time honored tradition of governments building white elephants, only this time the elephant had wings.

  • David Gillies

    How high do you have to go to make the boom negligible at ground level? Surely an SST at three times Concorde’s cruising altitude would be quiet.

  • Kodiak

    Jacob,

    It is not only the economic problem >>> nice take-off.

    it is also the technical problem to produce a quiet plane >>> crashy landing. My suggestion: it is also the political problem to operate a huge success that had the US get mad out of jealousy.

  • I remember as a child in the 60s on holiday in Norfolk, regularly hearing RAF Lightnings going supersonic on patrols over the North Sea. I assume they’re not allowed to do that any more.

    I recall somebody (I think Madsen Pirie over at the Adam Smith Insititute blog) speculating about there possibly being a market for smaller and more flexible fast transports, and whether Russian supersonic bomber designs might be adaptable for the purpose?

  • Tim

    Does anybody know if studies have been caried out identifying the extent to which the state development of this beautiful, winged white elephant (Dumborde?) impaired development of a viable private sector supersonic transport?

  • I have some commentary on this at TechCentralStation.