Fancy people don't need to get to Europe quickly anymore?

Expensive as hell to operate and many cities had noise ordinances in place that wouldn't allow the jet to operate at full speed.

I'm going to blame lawyers.

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Cost and noise, first response nailed it IMO.

SPNI

Lawyers, guns and money.  In this case it was two out of three that spelled the end for the SST.

It was/is a money loser...

Isn't most of the flight over the ocean? ie JFK to LHR



 

It couldn't pay for itself and the crash highlighted the reduced safety factor of the aircraft.

It was a white elephant.

That and expensive as hell to buy a ticket. Not so great safety rating too. That last crash in 2000 was the nail in the coffin. It wasn't a very efficient jet either, more like "Hey look what I built! Want to ride?"

The Concordes always lost money. They were subsidized by the British and French governments. After the crash, they found their excuse to ground the planes and get out from under the albatross.

There hasn't been interest in developing a replacement, because they'll still cost more to operate than they can generate in revenue.

They were actually limited to JFK-LHR. They couldn't fly from LHR to LAX, or routes like that due to noise. So their revenue was/is very limited.



 

A lot of the money for its development came from .gov during the Cold War.
There was a ~justifiable "need" for super-sonic transport during the Cold War.

Now?

Companies are not going to go it alone. There isn't enough of a cost-benefit.

It was 100% first class, exacerbating the cost.

High speed internet and video conferencing also doomed it.

Kharn

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Money, regulations, and this

Last I heard when I looked into flying via Concorde. A ticket was $11,000 .  Also the Concorde was not allowed to land at MOST US Airports.

It was the Chrysler Concorde of Concordes.

VTCs

People generally do not mind an extra few hours of flight time IF there are more available flights and they have more destination cities.

The weakness of the Concord was fewer cities open to it from noise and/or range. Also, fewer flights per day.

Saw the Concorde fly over my school as a kid in the uk...also saw it at a local airport...a truly amazing piece of equipment that I sadly would never be in a position to experience

9-11 played a big role in the demise of the Concorde.

Something I just read about a few weeks back, apparently Boeing was convinced supersonic passenger aircraft were the future too at one point.  The 747 was designed to sell a few passenger jets, then convert over to all cargo once the supersonic planes took over.

Bet they were glad to be "behind the curve" on that one.

I saw he first test landing at Kennedy, it was an incredible sight.

?

Where do you get your facts from?

The SST was one of the safest modern aircraft built and it had only 1 accident and that was caused by another aircraft.

remember hearing them taking off every morning - so fucking awesome



also - small insides for what you're paying for....

I'm actually surprised no one has setup an asian route for an SST.  Some long flights!  LAX could handle it.

$$$$$ plain and simple.

What would the range be on a jet like that, though?

Malaysia and India both prohibited supersonic overflights. LA to Tokyo is 5474 miles, the Concorde maxed out at 4488 miles, so a fuel stop at Hawaii would be required, not a great selling point for a plane built on speed.

Kharn

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Saw it fly over my school in the middle of Oklahoma once....must have been a special one-time flight

Crazy expensive, but VERY cool. Service was brilliant.

At 60,000 feet you could see the curvature of the earth and up to to black of space.

3 hours and 20 min flight was neat. Hangout in London for the day, leave at 6pm as it was dark.
Chase the sun and pass the terminator (solar line that separate day and night) and have dinner with your friends in NYC.

Top on my list so when I found out it was leaving service I just had to do it.

1/2 * rho * V^2 * A * Cd

I passed on a ride in one for a couple hundred bucks. Just a short hop over Canadian airspace.

They were at the Oshkosh Fly In several years.  Amazing aircraft to watch do touch and goes.

Max performance takeoff from a start shook the earth, and anyone within a mile or so of the flightline.

I saw it flying over my school too, going into IAD in the late 80s

You could fly on a slower plane, in more luxury, for cheaper?  If you just want a ride at fighter jet speeds I'm sure there are companies that will take your money and do something a little more thrilling during the flight.

Concorde could have been more successful if it had been American

That is one butt-ugly airframe.

That is one butt-ugly airframe.

You can say that again!

There will never be a replacement supersonic jetliner, not in our lifetimes. It was too expensive to fly. Modern airlines want maximum profit, and high fuel burn doesn't accomplish that.

From now on, you'll be seeing twin-engine, subsonic jets as the norm. There are still 4-burners, but their sales are dropping. The new 747-800 has slowed production and the Airbus 380 isn't selling nearly as much as Airbus had hoped. Bu there are new twin engine designs coming out.

The closest we came to the SST was the Boeing Sonic Cruiser. It was a transonic twinjet, using the big engines from the 777. It was to fly as high as 50,000 ft at .98 Mach. But after 9-11 and the near collapse of the airline industry, the airlines lost interest and went for more fuel efficient designs.

Sonic Cruiser:



What I would have given to fly aboard that bird. It would have had the same fuel efficiency as today's 767, but airlines wanted even more efficient jets. Hence, the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350. I'm holding on to the hope that this design will someday be resurrected.
(Boeing re-applied the patent for the Sonic Cruiser design in 2012, so maybe there's real hope.)

Shhh, better watch out, people will think you're mean or something for using facts to prove your point.

I guess they would be flying if they made money.

 


 

The Soviets flew their Concorde between Moscow and the capital of Mongolia.  They used it to deliver mail.

 

It had a Hemi?

I never rode one but heard it was cramped, like riding in a tube.

It was a novelty.

not exactly first class

Worked about 5 miles east of Dulles from 82-86 directly in the landing path.  Was really cool to watch is on approach.   Couple of the folks I worked with flew it. As others have said. Noisy, inefficient and cramped were its demise.

Awesome Planes when it comes to looking awesome. Not so much for making ducats

A group of enthusiasts and retired Concorde mechanics got one of the British ones running on ground power, which was neat to see. Cockpit all lit up, voices on the radio, control surface checks. They were eventually going to restart her engines, but the UK government chickened out, made then stop the entire thing and drain all her hydraulic fluids due to "insurance concerns". So now all the hoses are drying out and she'll be silent forever.

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