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Neither of those planes made more money than they cost. The Tu-144 was famously not reasonable at all.
by iancmceachern 2y ago
Neither of those planes made more money than they cost.
The Tu-144 was famously not reasonable at all.
- wongarsu 2y agoHence why everyone thinks supersonic passenger planes are a bad idea. Lots of profitable military supersonic planes, but every existing example of a civilian supersonic plane is only justified as a Cold War dick-measuring contest.
- fastball 2y agoHow do you measure the profitability of military aircraft?
- chii 2y agoTaxpayers willing to pay for it, and at a cost that's inclusive of the profit for the builders.
- lostlogin 2y agoWouldn’t that make the Tu-144 a success? And make every government purchase ever, successful? Could we at least limit it to choices made by elected governments?
- chii 2y ago> And make every government purchase ever, successful? yes. From the POV of the supplier, every gov't contract is going to be profitable. That's why the military industrial complex is so big, and profitable. It's why some people go into politics to extend it. Esp. in america. > How do you measure the profitability of military aircraft? what you truly meant is how to do you measure the value obtained from a purchase of a military aircraft. And scholars have studied this for centuries and not arrived at a true answer.
- duxup 2y agoI assume that’s the source of the doubs about Boom.
- brucehoult 2y agoConcorde at least made more money than it cost to operate (and maintain). The TU-144 made 102 commercial flights, with 55 of those carrying passengers -- the others I assume were cargo. Not 102 flights per day or month -- 102 flights TOTAL between the first commercial flight in December 1975 and retirement from passenger service in 1978 and from all commercial service in 1983. With 16 built, that's an average of 6 flights each in their lifetime. SpaceX has Falcon 9 rocket boosters with 4x as many hypersonic flights on them.
- tobinfricke 2y agoWhat cargo would justify a supersonic flight?
- mattclarkdotnet 2y agoAnything high value and perishable, like sushi grade fish for example. Or did you mean morally justifiable?
- iancmceachern 2y agoFlying fish that are increasingly not sustainably harvested on insanely fuel in-efficient supersonic planes is exactly humanity deserves to go extinct.
- bcatanzaro 2y agoThey often flew mail on it as their cargo. But the plane was more a matter of national pride than something that made sense.
- throwaway2037 2y ago> Concorde at least made more money than it cost to operate (and maintain). This overlooks development costs. Wiki says: > Delays and cost overruns increased the programme cost to £1.5–2.1 billion in 1976, (£11–16 billion in 2023). That is an astonishing price for 20 aeroplanes!