The Concorde Story — Case Study

They said it was expensive to operate and very noisy. The sonic booms over cities resulted in tons of complaints from residents. Rising operating costs resulted in higher ticket prices. Then a fatal crash that killed 113.

Then finally in 2003, they killed it. Concorde flew for the last time on 26th November 2003.

This is the story of the world’s fastest commercial airliner. Ever.

The cold war was a great time for scientific innovation. The competition between the two superpowers resulted in amazing inventions that were ahead of its time. The Americans even landed on the Moon, to beat the Soviets.

Another thing that came out of the cold war was the Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144.

Both were supersonic commercial planes that aimed at dramatically reducing flight times. The Concorde was manufactured by a coalition of British & French companies such as Airbus, BAE systems, Sud Aviation, British Aircraft Corporation, & British Aerospace.

Britain & France wanted to create a plane that was faster than the speed of sound. Which could cut down flight time drastically. It was also a goal to bring down the time that it took to travel from Europe to the USA. So, in 1962, Britain and France signed an agreement to share the costs and risks involved with building such an aircraft.

The final product was completed in 1969. Twenty aircrafts were built including 6 prototypes.

Concorde was one of a kind. It flew faster than any other commercial plane in existence. It’s first flight reached a maximum cruise speed of 2,179 km/hr, more than twice the speed of sound. The first transatlantic flight took place in 1973. In 1976, Concorde scheduled its first commercial supersonic flights with British Airways flights from London to Bahrain, & Air France flights from Paris to Rio.

Regular flights to Washington D.C. & NYC were added from 1976.

And, it blew people away. It was mainly a luxury experience. The ticket prices were high, starting from $7574 for a round trip from London to New York City. The plane could fly to New York from London in just 2 hours, 59 mins. A Boeing 777 aircraft today takes around 8 hours and 10 mins to fly the same route. So the Concorde was blistering fast.

The Concorde was the talk of the town. It wowed people where it went. Articles were written about its technological innovations & the project was being praised in general across the world, but not for long.

As mentioned above, flying transatlantic on a supersonic aircraft was simply too expensive for many people. Now combine that with the high maintenance & operational costs, as you get a pretty bad picture. Also, along with flying supersonic comes sonic booms. And sonic booms are loud. Since the Concorde was flying over population centres, people started complaining about the noise. Along with the noise, rising fuel costs meant that the technological marvel had its days numbered.

Concorde flew for the last time on 26th November 2003. The world moved on to slower forms of air transport but with better fuel efficiency and sustainability.

Newer and better twin engine airliners became the standard for air travel. 18 out of the 20 Concorde still survive, and many of those are available for viewing for those who want to take a peak at a piece of an aviation technological masterpiece.

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