What Happened to the Concordes?
airandspace.si.edu
These days, it takes seven hours to fly from New York to London, compared to under three hours flying at twice the speed of sound on the Concorde. When I started my internship at the National Air and Space Museum, I was determined to learn why.

Why didn’t it succeed?

Concorde flights came to a screeching halt after only 27 years of operation on October 24, 2003. The reason? Excessive cost, high fares, and loud noise. On a regular flight, Concordes consumed 6,771 gallons of fuel, which quickly exceeded the profit made from the flight. In addition to that, only a total of 20 Concordes were built and no airline ordered them except for Air France and British Airways, who had to as they were state-run airlines at the time.

Oh, and a 2000 crash that killed everyone on board (109 people) and four people on the ground.

  • 667English
    10·
    11 days ago

    Wait until you hear about pickling. A number of military aircraft at the “boneyard” At Davis-Monthan AFB are still suitable for service; their engines having been removed and pickled within a special crate beside the aircraft.

    Marine desalination systems are pickled between extended periods of non-use.

    And there’s also the traditional use for pickled.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      11 days ago

      At first I read “engineers” instead of “engines” and wondered if there was revival process or if they just didn’t want the engineers working on anything else.