The Concorde used to fly over my house every Tuesday and Thursday, after departing IAD. That roar was thrilling, but I wouldn’t want to hear it more than twice a week
Still think she looks beautiful, an amazing craft.
I remember the morning of the crash, reading a BBC article at work saying that they expected to get 20 more years of life out of her. Then got home from work to see the images of here in flames☹️
I was working at the airport in Barbados during BA and Air France service to the island. I went on board once when one of the aircraft was on the ramp. A fascinating thing it was.
The United States was developing its own SST but it never got off the ground. Boeing with the help of engineering subcontractors like Fairchild-Republic and support from Senator Skip Jackson all but built it. We didn't even fly prototypes, if I remember. The Senate killed the project because of noise and pollution fears.
My father, on loan from Republic, spent a lot of months in Seattle working on it. A real shame.
Mach 1.7 is about twice as fast as a 747 or 787, but that is only when each is at cruising speed. A lot of time is wasted on the ground, and the planes don't achieve cruising speed until off the ground, out of heavy air traffic, and before slowing for approach, circling, landing, etc.
All in all, I suspect that passenger time on the plane will be 65% or so as long as on a current jumbo jet.
Not so sure about your “non stop transatlantic” - I flew Seattle to Copenhagen nonstop in a DC-8 in 1968. 747s were doing NY to London nonstop in 1970 (PA001 and PA002 were basically around the world flights.. I flew Tokyo-Honolulu on 747 in 1970)
Not sure what part you’re referring to. In the context of the article it’s not claiming that it was the first airplane to fly trans-Atlantic. It’s just saying that it was the Concorde’s first transatlantic.
That’s interesting about your transatlantic flights though.
My first transatlantic flight was non-stop on a TWA Boeing 707 from Chicago to Athens in 1973. Nine hours, as I recall, with 6'4" me in a window seat, my neck cricked to the left, to accommodate the curved, narrow fuselage.
I was glad when that was over.
We traveled over land and sea to London on ancient train cars with goats, on a ferry across the Adriatic, and on a Hovercraft across the Channel.
We flew home from Heathrow, London on a new 747. That was an improvement.
Haha! Greek buses overloaded with passengers and chickens were a lot more pleasant than some charter flights I've taken. But then, as a grandchild of Greek immigrants, I'd be inclined to think so.
Great stuff! 😀 I might also mention the rise of in-flight telephone service, the ubiquity of on-board wifi, and especially the huge price drop for private jet charters. I wrote about this (in passing) here:
Concorde is one of those aircraft where the engineering achievement and the economics were always fighting each other.
From a pilot/industry perspective it’s fascinating because technically it worked extremely well. But the combination of fuel burn, maintenance hours, sonic boom restrictions, and limited routes made scaling it almost impossible.
It’ll be interesting to see if Boom can solve the economics piece that Concorde never could.
The Concorde used to fly over my house every Tuesday and Thursday, after departing IAD. That roar was thrilling, but I wouldn’t want to hear it more than twice a week
Still think she looks beautiful, an amazing craft.
I remember the morning of the crash, reading a BBC article at work saying that they expected to get 20 more years of life out of her. Then got home from work to see the images of here in flames☹️
I agree, Davey! Amazing plane.
We definitely need more toys for the ultra rich.
Can’t see it ever coming back. The type of people that flew in it either fly private or have their own airplanes these days.
I was working at the airport in Barbados during BA and Air France service to the island. I went on board once when one of the aircraft was on the ramp. A fascinating thing it was.
The United States was developing its own SST but it never got off the ground. Boeing with the help of engineering subcontractors like Fairchild-Republic and support from Senator Skip Jackson all but built it. We didn't even fly prototypes, if I remember. The Senate killed the project because of noise and pollution fears.
My father, on loan from Republic, spent a lot of months in Seattle working on it. A real shame.
Mach 1.7 is about twice as fast as a 747 or 787, but that is only when each is at cruising speed. A lot of time is wasted on the ground, and the planes don't achieve cruising speed until off the ground, out of heavy air traffic, and before slowing for approach, circling, landing, etc.
All in all, I suspect that passenger time on the plane will be 65% or so as long as on a current jumbo jet.
Worth it?
Not so sure about your “non stop transatlantic” - I flew Seattle to Copenhagen nonstop in a DC-8 in 1968. 747s were doing NY to London nonstop in 1970 (PA001 and PA002 were basically around the world flights.. I flew Tokyo-Honolulu on 747 in 1970)
Not sure what part you’re referring to. In the context of the article it’s not claiming that it was the first airplane to fly trans-Atlantic. It’s just saying that it was the Concorde’s first transatlantic.
That’s interesting about your transatlantic flights though.
My first transatlantic flight was non-stop on a TWA Boeing 707 from Chicago to Athens in 1973. Nine hours, as I recall, with 6'4" me in a window seat, my neck cricked to the left, to accommodate the curved, narrow fuselage.
I was glad when that was over.
We traveled over land and sea to London on ancient train cars with goats, on a ferry across the Adriatic, and on a Hovercraft across the Channel.
We flew home from Heathrow, London on a new 747. That was an improvement.
Haha! Greek buses overloaded with passengers and chickens were a lot more pleasant than some charter flights I've taken. But then, as a grandchild of Greek immigrants, I'd be inclined to think so.
Train cars with goats sounds like a good story to tell!
It was NOT comfortable to fly.
Oh interesting. That’s too bad!
Great stuff! 😀 I might also mention the rise of in-flight telephone service, the ubiquity of on-board wifi, and especially the huge price drop for private jet charters. I wrote about this (in passing) here:
https://jjquinn.substack.com/p/what-phi-needs-in-2026?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6oic8y
Concorde is one of those aircraft where the engineering achievement and the economics were always fighting each other.
From a pilot/industry perspective it’s fascinating because technically it worked extremely well. But the combination of fuel burn, maintenance hours, sonic boom restrictions, and limited routes made scaling it almost impossible.
It’ll be interesting to see if Boom can solve the economics piece that Concorde never could.
It will be interesting! Some fascination stuff happening right now.
https://boomsupersonic.com
Maybe one day we’ll find out.