Farewell Concorde?

February 26, 2003 4:47 AM

The thought of Concorde services ending saddens me ( possibly because 101 sits less than half a mile from my doorstep). It [with it' s clone Concordeski] was the only supersonic passenger jet to even make it to prototype status. Considering things like it's massive fuel consumption, should we ditch the beast, find something else or go back to subsonics?
posted by twine42 (16 comments total)

It's of limited use, is nearing the end of its operational life, it's staggeringly expensive, and is incredibly noisy. Yet it's just about the most beautiful airplane ever built. I pause every time I see one and dream about how cool it would be to fly on it.
posted by Vidiot at 5:13 AM on February 26, 2003

Build more.
posted by davidmsc at 5:24 AM on February 26, 2003

they can't... some prat ditched all the jigs for them.
posted by twine42 at 5:26 AM on February 26, 2003

Screw Concorde! Bring on the affordable sub orbital flight!
posted by PenDevil at 5:32 AM on February 26, 2003

Sure they may look cool, but it's what's inside that counts.
posted by boost ventilator at 6:13 AM on February 26, 2003

It's profitability, or lack of it, shouldn't be a factor governing whether Concorde continues running. It's a national icon and one of the few things we have to be proud of nowadays. I suppose it'd be against Blair's "principles" to subsidise the thing just because people hold it dear to their hearts.

(I'm trying to gloss over the involvement of the French here of course).
posted by squealy at 6:25 AM on February 26, 2003

squealy - you may not know that Rolls Royce in the UK is a centre of excellence when it comes to aero-engine design and pioneered the efforts to reduce noise and pollution. There's another thing to be proud of.
posted by Summer at 6:39 AM on February 26, 2003

That "concorde-jet.com" site has this intriguing offer:

"Join the 'Concorde lovers' community and get advantages !!!!"

Evidently, the Mile-High Club is like the Masons-- it has degrees. I can't even get anyone to sponsor my initiation.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:48 AM on February 26, 2003

I don't claim to know anything about the aerospace industry Summer, though I assume you mean their plant in Derby. Concorde is just, in my eyes, beautiful, instantly recognisable and for some reason quintessentially British. Still, one assumes that if they do eventually take it out of service they'll keep some running for airshows and the like.
posted by squealy at 6:53 AM on February 26, 2003

my liberal arts math skills are telling me that a range of 3,740 miles and a fuel capacity of 26,286 gives it a miles per gallon of:

0.142

dang.
posted by grabbingsand at 7:16 AM on February 26, 2003

(even less, when you count in things like minimum emergency fuel reserves...)
posted by Vidiot at 7:22 AM on February 26, 2003

100 passengers, cargo of 1300lbs? So 13lbs per person?

Oh, and 3,461 miles at 0.142mpg is 24373 gallons. UK fuel prices (road gas - I know, I know) £3.70/gallon ($5.85/gallon). $141,363 a throw for gas. $1414 a head. Nice. Good job Aviation spirit is cheap. ;)
posted by twine42 at 7:54 AM on February 26, 2003

Can I just emphasise that we pay $5.85 a gallon for petrol over here? Good good. Money grabbing bastards that our government is.

Oops. Didn't mean to attempt a hijack on my own thread. ;)
posted by twine42 at 7:55 AM on February 26, 2003

I flew on Concorde (Air France). Paris-New York in January 1993.

It was very fast (2.5 hours flight time - we had a strong tailwind that helped), but inside it was very cramped, and the haute cuisine food (foie gras and caviar) was disgusting. Really horrible.

Concorde amazing in terms of its speed, but the cramped space makes it pretty annoying.
posted by tomcosgrave at 8:25 AM on February 26, 2003

Don't get your hopes up for any similar replacement, Boeing recently dumped plans to build a just-under Mach 1 passenger aircraft in favor of a larger long distance version of the 737. Evidently if the airline doesn't have to stop for refueling they save quite a bit of cash.
posted by yonderboy at 9:09 AM on February 26, 2003

Maybe we shouldn't be looking to Europe and the US to pick up where the Concorde left off?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:15 AM on February 26, 2003