3 ms·
I think you're exhibiting a lack of imagination here. There's plenty of time sensitive items the Concorde was used to transport, like organs for transplants, or
by ghc 1y ago
I think you're exhibiting a lack of imagination here. There's plenty of time sensitive items the Concorde was used to transport, like organs for transplants, or serum for snake bite victims.
Since the retirement of the Concorde we've regrettably had to use fighter jets for some of these life-saving flights. Sure, rich people subsidized all of it to shave a few hours off their business flights, but given how much avgas Elon's jet uses, it is really more efficient if they half the people who would take a supersonic flight take small private jets instead?
- echoangle 1y agoMaybe unpopular opinion but with the costs associated with flying around organs for transplants or serum for snake bites at supersonic speeds, you could save a lot more people in different situations.
- geertj 1y ago> given how much avgas Elon's jet uses Jets don’t consume avgas.
- ghc 1y agoTIL. I've only made a few business plane trips, but thinking back on it they were all turboprops.
- jordanb 1y agoTurboprops also run on jet fuel. Only reciprocating engines use avgas.
- jcalvinowens 1y agoJets will run on anything that burns, most turboprops are allowed to burn avgas in emergencies. Some officially allow 100+ hours of avgas operation between overhauls.
- dghlsakjg 1y agoCan you source this at all? This sounds like it would check out until you realize that the Concorde operated on only two routes, and not on an ad hoc basis. This is extremely convenient if you happen to need to get some critical medical supply, which happens to not exist in one of these world capitols, from New York to Paris or London and the timing lines up perfectly with a scheduled Concorde flight. How often do organs go transatlantic anyway? Are there tons of snakebite victims in Paris or London that can only be treated by antivenin stored at JFK? In any other circumstance, you are almost certainly better off sending a medical jet directly from where the item is to where it needs to go. A business jet going straight from where the donor organ is, to where it needs to go is, in almost any circumstance, going to be faster than waiting for the next scheduled flight going supersonic across the Atlantic, then having to transfer to a completely different subsonic plane for the rest of its journey.
- ghc 1y agoSource: Concorde exhibit at the Smithsonian, complete with photos of the South Africa flight (which was not its normal route). Also, the Concorde had other routes. I don't think those routes were even the first ones. I remember reading about Singapore and the Middle East, but according to this website: http://www.concordesst.com/history/destinations.html http://www.concordesst.com/history/destinations.html it even went to Barbados. It looks like you can learn plenty more by googling or reading newspaper archives.
- dghlsakjg 1y agoYour source notes that those were charter destinations that were available. It’s really just a list of places that Air France or BA flew. It lists Denver, for example, but I can’t find a single other source that actually shows the Concorde having visited Denver. I’m not arguing that the Concorde only went to NY, London, and Paris. I’m arguing that it was never a critical link in medical supplies logistics, and that using just a little logic explains it. It mentions nothing about the Concorde being used for medical deliveries on charter, or at all. Nor have you substantiated using fighters for medical deliveries in its lieu, which was asserted. It also notoriously wasn’t viable for longer flights without refueling, which again, is another logistical and timing issue for medical flight. The rub with Concorde, or any supersonic jet, is that they are not allowed to operate supersonic over land. That makes it an expensive, fuel hogging, very loud, plane with special runway needs.