First flight of Concorde, March 2, 1969

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Wikipedia.

I used to work in Reston, 25 years ago. Reston is a suburb in Fairfax County, Virginia. There must have been an Air France flight scheduled to arrive at Dulles at noon. I think it was an arrival and not a departure, as it was low to the ground. Some days, we would be walking to lunch, and Concorde would fly over. I miss that sight. This was a beautiful plane.

Here's a video of a landing:

From În urmă cu 46 de ani, Concorde, primul avion supersonic de pasageri din lume, decola de pe aeroportul din Toulouse. VIDEO:

[Phentex]

1. It was always on my fantasy bucket list...

always thought it would be amazing to take a trip on one.

I did get to see one on display at the Intrepid Museum. Magnificent!

[father founding]

2. looks aren't everything

It certainly was a great looking aircraft, but it was probably the most inefficient machine ever built.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. You got me thinking,

which is always a dangerous thing. Wikipedia has that information.

Fuel economy in aircraft

Jet aircraft efficiency

Jet aircraft efficiencies are improving: Between 1960 and 2000 there was a 55% overall fuel efficiency gain (if one were to exclude the inefficient and limited fleet of the De Havilland Comet 4 and to consider the Boeing 707 as the base case). Most of the improvements in efficiency were gained in the first decade when jet craft first came into widespread commercial use. Between 1971 and 1998 the fleet-average annual improvement per available seat-kilometre was estimated at 2.4%. Concorde the supersonic transport managed about 17 passenger-miles to the Imperial gallon; similar to a business jet, but much worse than a subsonic turbofan aircraft. Airbus states a fuel rate consumption of their A380 at less than 3 L/100 km per passenger (78 passenger-miles per US gallon).

I'm sure that if I Googled, I could find that someone has a 21st century supersonic transport (SST) on the drawing board (okay, on a server's hard drive), and that this information is available for a modern SST. My guess is that no SST is likely to have outstanding fuel economy as a selling point.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. It also had problems with noise

which is why it was restricted to just a few US airports.

[rickford66]

4. I was in Paris on business when the Concord crashed.

My hotel was a short walk from Le Bourget airport where we were told the crippled aircraft was attempting to land. We worked on the simulators at the airport. We could see the smoke. There were many hundreds of firemen and police racing to the scene for hours. The first test aircraft is on display at the airport and is worth a visit as is the rest of the museum.

[leveymg]

5. Am I just getting old and nostalgic, or did air progress seem to end about 1970?

Last edited Mon Mar 2, 2015, 05:08 PM - Edit history (1)

I know that commercial aviation is more efficient, and there are many more people flying today, but I don't see much difference in fuselage shapes and flight times that show a lot has changed in the last 40 years. Looking at this photo of Concorde and the still in service DC-3s in the background, the previous advances were much more startling.

Anyone else feel the same way?

[CTyankee]

6. That brief shot over Rio de Janeiro...oh my...

what beauty in flight...