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Bit disingenuous here. Concorde faced several real issues. Shockwaves from going supersonic restricted flight paths. Costs were massive and the number of seats
by jwestbury 3y ago
Bit disingenuous here. Concorde faced several real issues. Shockwaves from going supersonic restricted flight paths. Costs were massive and the number of seats were limited, as was the total customer base, meaning it was always going to be a struggle to make it profitable. Sure, the Air France incident sped up its demise -- but it was on the way out anyway.
- Someone1234 3y agoThat's a good summation. A lot of the costs problems were directly related to the "over-land sonic boom ban" (on both sides of the Atlantic). The aircraft is VERY inefficient in subsonic flight, the bans had a triple effect: - Longer flights: Meaning higher staff costs, more wear & tear, suppressing demand (no more "breakfast in London, dinner in Washington DC" ads). - Reduced destinations: Meaning a smaller fleet, making each aircraft suffer from lack of economies of scale. - More subsonic flight time meaning higher total flight fuel costs If sonic booms didn't exist suddenly, I think Concorde could have been a success. The real mystery is why the sonic boom problem wasn't found during testing or development? It isn't like they weren't known about at the time...