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.

  • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    But now, I wonder if supersonic flight could work today. We know a lot more now than we did when the first Concordes were built. There have been numerous advances in the fields of engineering, materials science, avionics, and such since the last Concorde jet was grounded.

    • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 hours ago

      Boom Supersonic is a private company working on it, with an eye towards better fuel efficiency than the Concorde. They’re still in the early stages, though, so who knows if they’ll actually be able to finish a design, much less manufacture a working model.

      And NASA has been doing some research on sonic boom characteristics, to see if a plane can be designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without causing a sonic boom.

    • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      In the field of aviation there have been almost no innovations except better electronics and manufacturing techniques.

      All old principles still hold. Going faster requires a ton more energy.

    • sanimalp@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Boom supersonic is trying to bring supersonic passenger flight back. They have a test bed prototype that flies out of a Colorado airport. But last I heard they were in big trouble without an engine supplier.