What Happened to the Concordes?
airandspace.si.edu
These days, it takes seven hours to fly from New York to London, compared to under three hours flying at twice the speed of sound on the Concorde. When I started my internship at the National Air and Space Museum, I was determined to learn why.

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.

  • Delascas@feddit.ukEnglish
    26·
    13 hours ago

    Never have I felt as old online.

    I flew on it . . twice. Round trip NYC - London and home a week later. BA obviously.

    At altitude (60,000 feet) the sky was black, not blue. And for any flat-earth’ers out there . . sorry, but from 60,000 feet you could see the curvature of the earth.

    The only interesting physical difference I remember was the difference in acceleration departing JFK vs. departing from Heathrow. Out of JFK you are instantly over the Atlantic, so it accelerated from 0 mph to Mach 2.0 in one continuous push. Whereas departing Heathrow, you are over land until the English channel. So it accelerated down the runway like any other plane, cruised until over water, then it felt like it was taking off a second time, with a much longer acceleration push.