What was the problem with Concorde? Concorde was far too expensive, was not very environmentally friendly, couldn’t carry many people, and it wasn’t allowed to go supersonic over land because of the sonic boom.
Concorde first flew with Air France and British Airways in 1976. The supersonic plane flew continuously for 27 years before being retired in 2003. The idea to make a supersonic plane was first raised in 1954. It went through several years of testing and committees between France and the UK. It was a project to bring France and the UK closer together. It was also a way to bring both countries closer to the US. It was the middle of the Cold War and the world was dividing into two halves. Business between Western Europe and the US was booming and it felt important to cement the relationship. A fast flight between New York, London, and Paris seemed like a good way to do that.
Since the end of World War 2, jet technology was improving rapidly. The first supersonic plane had been flown in 1947. It was an experimental plane, but it didn’t take long for supersonic flight to be the norm for military aircraft. The idea to make a supersonic passenger jet had been floated, but it seemed too difficult in the early days. The first passenger jets had only flown in the beginning of the 1950s and passenger plane travel was still in its infancy. By the early 1960s, the research was nearing completion and they wanted to begin building the planes. They needed finance for that, so they began to advertise and pre-sell aircraft. By the time the first plane was ready to fly, they had sold 74 Concordes.
Concorde could fly from London to New York in about three hours and thirty minutes. The average passenger jet made the same journey in eight hours. Concorde had a top speed of Mach 2.02, which is 2,154 km/h. It flew at a height of 18,300 m, which is far higher than regular planes fly. Concorde also had a distinctive nose that angled down. The nose was only angled down when the plane was landing. During flight it was kept up to make the plane streamlined, but the long nose blocked the pilot’s sight, so it could be angled down when necessary. In today’s money, a flight on Concorde cost roughly $12,000, although they were much higher when the plane first flew. The plane could only carry 100 passengers.
The Concorde was a very fast luxury jet and it wasn’t intended for regular people. Wealthy business people and people who wanted to portray a certain image used it. However, it was a very impractical plane and its days were probably numbered from the very first flight it took. What were the problems?
One of the biggest problems was that any supersonic plane will make a sonic boom because they are travelling faster than the air can get out of their way. This compresses the air in front of the plane into an area of high pressure which is released when the plane moves by, creating the sound. We only hear a sonic boom once as the plane goes by, but the plane constantly makes a sonic boom as long as it is flying faster than sound. Concorde flew faster than sound and made a sonic boom. This is very loud and can actually break windows, so Concorde was forbidden from reaching supersonic speed until it was over the Atlantic. That meant it couldn’t fly at top speed for a part of the journey.
A second problem was the small size of the plane. Most modern passenger aircraft are designed to carry a lot of people and cargo. The more they can carry, the more economical they are. Concorde needed to be narrow and light to minimize drag. If it carried more people, it wouldn’t have been able to go as fast. That was fine in the early days, but once the number of people flying started to fall, it became a problem.
A third problem was the amount of fuel Concorde needed. At top speed, Concorde burned 25,629 liters of fuel an hour. That is about 10,000 liters more than a 747. This is not only bad for the environment, but it also raises the price. And that might have been the biggest problem. The Concorde was just too expensive.
In 2000, a Concorde crashed, killing all passengers and crew, plus four people on the ground. It was the only Concorde accident in the 27 years of flying, but it was enough to shake confidence and passenger numbers started to drop. The plane cost too much to fly half empty. Then, the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001 devasted the airline industry. Passenger numbers plummeted. On top of that, people became more environmentally aware and the problems became insurmountable. Concorde was retired. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/concorde-flying-what-was-it-like/index.html
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/what-happened-concordes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_airliner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_aircraft
Photo by Franz Herrmann: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-a-flying-military-airplane-16363818/