4 ms·

At Mach 2, Concorde was supersonic, not hypersonic

• coldtea 7y ago
  Yes, but we're worst from that now, for commercial flights. From supersonic back to subsonic...
  • jessriedel 7y ago
    Concorde was a loss-making government-subsidized program, and you can always make things "advance" by burning money. Although on occasional years it was (barely) operationally profitable, it never made a profit once depreciation of assets was considered, much less the cost of the development program. Given the available technology and society's decision to ban sonic booms over populated areas, this (we know now) was inevitable.
  • reaperducer 7y ago
    It's worse than that. In order to conserve fuel, most commercial jets fly slower than they used to.
    • LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago
      I hear that often, but it seems this doesn't apply to the flights between Asia and France which go over my town. I know this because when i'm awake in the night i can hear them trough double paned glass in closed windows and then click on flightradar24.com to see who it is. And then see them between 10.5km to 11.5km up, with speeds between 950 and 1050 kph above ground. Airbus 380 or Boeing 777-ER usually. This goes both ways between Paris/CDG and many large locations in Asia, easily a dozen per night and direction.