With the recent Farnborough air show, Boom exhibited their new supersonic aircraft, which together with NASAs help will bring back the memories of the lucky few who managed to fly onboard the iconic Concorde1. But what was its predecessor like? And how will the next generation of supersonic commercial aircraft fare in today's world? Welcome to this week’s look into the Concorde, where we discuss what it was like to fly it and why it failed.
Life with the Concorde
With over two decades of collaborative research between British and French companies, they have resulted in the creation of the first supersonic passenger aircraft. Whilst the jet age halved the time for long-haul flights compared to propeller aircraft, supersonic aircraft promised to halve it further making a transition of a 15-hour flight to just 3 and a half hours in under 30 years.
With only 14 Concordes in service over its 27 years, the aircraft ferried 2.5 million passengers at speeds of 1.75 Mach. Flying at 55,000 ft, passengers onboard could see the curvature of the Earth as their form of in-flight entertainment whilst being served caviar and champagne. Though, this supersonic luxury didn’t come cheap, with a single round trip ticket across the Atlantic costing $12,0002. With flights from London and Paris to Bahrain, Singapore, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil and 100 orders from various airlines, the Concorde seemed to be the next big thing in the industry since the 747. However, it quickly became apparent that the Concorde would become an expensive aircraft to run.
The Demise of the Concorde
Although the Concorde brought a lot of prestige to the two airlines that operated it, Air France and British Airways, it also brought them financial pressure. This became apparent quickly to other airlines who also had ordered it. Due to the extravagant luxuries onboard, the fuel consumed (up to a ton per seat), and annual costs went up to £1 billion. Despite this, British Airways still to return £30-50 million per year, and like Air France was still driven to continue flying the aircraft3.
However, as the aircraft got older, the maintenance costs increased and pairing that with the crash in 2000 and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, demand for the Concorde decreased. The Concorde was also a very loud aircraft, with take-off noises being up to 120 dB, which is as loud as a thunderclap running constantly and 10dB above the pain threshold of human hearing4. This led to many countries banning the aircraft in their airspace and eventually led to the legendary Concorde being retired with the last flight landing in Bristol on 26th November 2003.
But now we are about to see the next generation of Supersonic Aircraft which offers to fix most of the problems that plagued the Concorde. Boom, an American firm that partnered with NASA to develop the next generation of supersonic aircraft. If you’re curious to find out more, stay tuned for next week’s dive into the features of this aircraft that will start flying commercially before the end of this decade.
Till then, have a good week,
Maxime
Boom Supersonic Accelerates Overture and Engine Development Farnborough Airshow
https://boomsupersonic.com/flyby/boom-supersonic-accelerates-overture-and-engine-development-farnborough-airshow
Celebrity Passengers and Caviar at 55000 Feet - CN Traveler
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/celebrity-passengers-and-caviar-at-55000-feet-what-it-was-like-to-fly-concorde-in-the-70s
How Much Did it Cost to Operate Concorde? - Simple Flying
https://simpleflying.com/how-much-did-it-cost-to-operate-concorde/
Concorde Technical Feat and Financial Fiasco - Physic Org -
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-concorde-technical-feat-financial-fiasco.html#:~:text=Thunderously%20noisy,human%20ear%20is%20around%20110.