That'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 V

That'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...