Another issue: it exploded, and 113 people died.
The way you say it, it sounds like Concorde was unsafe, and by extension, all supersonic planes are.
Almost every plane out there has had at least one bad accident. And every single time measures are taken so that type of accident doesn't happen again.
A unique series of events unfolded during takeoff, leading to a loss of engine power and subsequent crash. It's unfair to say it simply exploded.
Yeah, but when I think "supersonic jet", I think of the extremely vivid image of a the flaming Concorde crash[1] - it was the cover of every major paper. I think lots of people who remember that era still do, and it'll make me extremely unlikely to ever step into a Boom (the name doesn't help either), even though I do want them to succeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_4590#/media/...
Re:New Planes That May Change Travel
by NeedMoreTea on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @01:49AM
(#17957450)
The Concorde crash was caused by bits of titanium engine cowling on the runway shredding a tyre and damaging a wing tank. The largest piece was an 18" long, 1" wide strip of metal that tore 10lb chunks out of the tyre.
Do you associate DC10's the same way? (The debris were from a DC10).
Apart from being a chain of events vanishingly unlikely to repeat, I doubt all other aircraft would come away from the same scenario fatality free.
Re:New Planes That May Change Travel
by bobthepanda on Monday September 10, 2018 @05:33PM
(#17955401)
I mean, you could also say that a lot of people think plane is synonymous with "hijacking", "terrorism", or "9/11". Doesn't make flying unprofitable.
- Boom. Boom supposedly targeted a 10x noise reduction for its sonic boom compared to Concorde, but whether or not it can convince the FAA remains to be seen. - Lack of bodies that could reliably fill seats at the ticket prices. Boom is targeting current business class ticket prices, and the plane is half as big as the Concorde; 55 seats is around the size of a current premium class cabin. - The wrong ocean. Flights across the Atlantic are not that long; six hours is a reasonable night's sleep from NY-London. On the other hand, the Pacific is massive; even Seattle-Tokyo is 12 hours. When Concorde was built, Asia wasn't rich and they could only convince Air France and BA to buy them; today JAL is investing in Boom, and there are probably people willing to pay a premium to halve 12+ hour flight times from the West Coast to Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, etc.