Why didn’t it succeed?
Concorde flights came to a screeching halt after only 27 years of operation on October 24, 2003. The reason? Excessive cost, high fares, and loud noise. On a regular flight, Concordes consumed 6,771 gallons of fuel, which quickly exceeded the profit made from the flight. In addition to that, only a total of 20 Concordes were built and no airline ordered them except for Air France and British Airways, who had to as they were state-run airlines at the time.
Oh, and a 2000 crash that killed everyone on board (109 people) and four people on the ground.
I never understood why they could not just go slow until they got up to cruising altitude and then gun it, wouldn’t that solve the sound problem?
It’s the whole “I’ll fall out of the sky if I go any slower with this delta wing” thing.
To create enough lift on a smaller wing you’ll have to go fast. A delta wing (v shape at the back) like on the Concord and almost all fighterjets makes it easier to go fast. They just suck at going slow.
Add to that the " go faster!" Engines and you’ll get a very loud plane.
A Concorde was for all intents and purposes just a very large fighterjet.
Oh that makes sense, thanks
Weren’t they basically horribly inefficient at slower speeds? That’s how I understand most supersonic craft to be. In order to maximize their efficiency at their intended cruising speed, they sacrifice efficiency at slower speeds. Spend too much time at those lower speeds you end up not having enough fuel to get to your destination.
That may be true, but don’t forget about the aerodynamics. They have smaller, swept wings to lower any drag and to provide the proper lift at cruising speed.
At slow speeds they likely have the ailerons cranked near maxlift, just to stay aloft. (This likely causes or at least contributes to the fuel inefficiency, due to the increased drag.)
Sonic booms are a constant noise, so they would always be making a noise at max speed
They definitely don’t go supersonic on approach over land. That’s kinda why they did transatlantic flights.
So you’d still hear them even if they are 30000 feet above you?
I would guess that the sound would still travel through the air and be loud even at altitude as it passes (passed) over.