Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde is a retired turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport (SST). It is one of only two SSTs to have entered commercial service; the other was the Tupolev Tu-144. Concorde was jointly developed and produced by Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) under an Anglo-French treaty. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued commercial flights for 27 years.
Among other destinations, Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport to New York JFK and Washington Dulles; it profitably flew these routes in less than half the time of other airliners. With only 20 aircraft built, the development of Concorde was a substantial economic loss; Air France and British Airways also received considerable government subsidies to purchase them. Concorde was retired in 2003 due to a general downturn in the aviation industry after the type's only crash in 2000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and a decision by Airbus, the successor firm of Aerospatiale and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support.
Concorde's name reflects the development agreement between the United Kingdom and France. In the UK, any or all of the type—unusual for an aircraft—are known simply as "Concorde", without an article. The aircraft is regarded by many people as an aviation icon and an engineering marvel
A supersonic transport (SST) is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been the Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. The last passenger flight for the Tu-144 was in June 1978 and it was last flown in 1999 by NASA. The Concorde's last commercial flight was in October 2003, with a November 26, 2003 ferry flight being its last airborne operation. Following the permanent cessation of flying by the Concorde, there are no remaining SSTs in commercial service.
Supersonic airliners' greater speed and efficiency over their conventional counterparts have made them objects of numerous recent and ongoing design studies. Drawbacks and design challenges are excessive noise generation (at takeoff and due to sonic booms during flight), high development costs, expensive construction materials, great weight, and an increased cost per seat over subsonic airliners. Despite these challenges, the Concorde was operated profitably in a niche market for over 27 years.
Concorde, the first supersonic passenger-carrying commercial airplane (or supersonic transport, SST), built jointly by aircraft manufacturers in Great Britain and France. The Concorde made its first transatlantic crossing on Sept. 26, 1973, and it inaugurated the world’s first scheduled supersonic passenger service on Jan. 21, 1976—British Airways initially flying the aircraft from London to Bahrain and Air France flying it from Paris to Rio de Janeiro. Both airlines added regular service to Washington, D.C., in May 1976 and to New York City in November 1977. Other routes were added temporarily or seasonally, and the Concorde was flown on chartered flights to destinations all over the world. However, the aircraft’s noise and operating expense limited its service. Financial losses led both airlines to cut routes, eventually leaving New York City as their only regular destination. Concorde operations were finally ceased by Air France in May 2003 and by British Airways in October 2003. Only 14 of the aircraft actually went into service.
The Concorde was the first major cooperative venture of European countries to design and build an aircraft. On Nov. 29, 1962, Britain and France signed a treaty to share costs and risks in producing an SST. British Aerospace and the French firm Aérospatiale were responsible for the airframe, while Britain’s Rolls-Royce and France’s SNECMA (Société Nationale d’Étude et de Construction de Moteurs d’Aviation) developed the jet engines. The result was a technological masterpiece, the delta-wing Concorde, which made its first flight on March 2, 1969. The Concorde had a maximum cruising speed of 2,179 km (1,354 miles) per hour, or Mach 2.04 (more than twice the speed of sound), allowing the aircraft to reduce the flight time between London and New York to about three hours. The development costs of the Concorde were so great that they could never be recovered from operations, and the aircraft was never financially profitable. Nevertheless, it proved that European governments and manufacturers could cooperate in complex ventures, and it helped to ensure that Europe would remain at the technical forefront of aerospace development.
On July 25, 2000, a Concorde en route from Paris to New York City suffered engine failure shortly after takeoff when debris from a burst tire caused a fuel tank to rupture and burst into flames. The aircraft crashed into a small hotel and restaurant. All 109 persons on board, including 100 passengers and 9 crew members, died; 4 people on the ground were also killed.
(CNN) -- For more than three decades, Concorde represented the pinnacle of business travel -- the ultimate status symbol for the jetset executive.
Considered a marvel of aviation technology, the distinctive droop-nosed aircraft traveled at twice the speed of sound, flying from London to New York in about three and a half hours -- half the time of commercial airliners.
But even before an Air France Concorde crashed in 2000, killing all 100 passengers and nine crew members on board, the luster was beginning to wane.
Battling high operating costs and low passenger numbers, Air France and British Airways grounded their small, aging fleet a mere three years later.
But the dream of supersonic flight has not disappeared. Aviation manufacturers such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Aerion are working on supersonic technology -- with the latter predicting it could have a supersonic business jet in service as early as 2020.
Traveling at 'hypersonic' speeds
Industry expert Joe Lissenden, the director of aerospace and defense consulting in the Americas for IHS Jane's, says it's likely that a next-generation supersonic commercial aircraft will emerge.
High demand from passengers, historic profitability on the routes and significant technological improvements have combined to make supersonic flight all the more viable, he said.
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For Lissenden, the one challenge that remains is fuel cost. "Faster flights consume fuel faster which makes the flight more expensive," he said. "But this is a premium route, and premium prices will be charged."
Crucial to the efforts to restore supersonic aircraft to the skies is the work of national aerospace programs such as NASA and Japan's JAXA. Peter Coen is the supersonics research project manager for NASA's fundamental aeronautics program.
While the agency is not working on a specific supersonic aircraft, he said, "we are working on technologies we feel represent barriers to bringing back successful supersonic aircraft."
Those barriers include high atmosphere emissions, noise produced when taking off and landing, and the sonic boom -- the sound associated with the shockwaves created when objects travel faster than the speed of sound, which has prevented supersonic aircraft from flying overland routes.
The boom is the barrier and if we can get past that, I think we'll see people giving supersonic flight a lot more serious consideration.
Peter Coen, supersonics research project manager, NASA fundamental aeronautics program
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Coen said his division was concentrated on addressing the sonic boom issue first, because "if you don't have overland supersonic flight, there's never going to be a market for the supersonic aircraft."
NASA has been collaborating with Boeing and Lockheed Martin on systems-level design studies, with each manufacturer producing models that have been subjected to wind tunnel testing to gauge their effectiveness.
Coen said phase one testing had successfully validated the basic design techniques. Reshaping the aircraft, the designs -- Boeing's two-jet configuration with engines mounted above the wing, and Lockheed Martin's tri-jet configuration, with two engines below the wing and a third mounted in the tail -- had been proven to significantly reduce the sonic boom to a "thump," dropping the noise from Concorde levels to close to what is considered the level of acceptability.
Coen said he expected to see a next-generation "son of Concorde" in the marketplace by around 2030, while a supersonic business jet "could happen sooner."
"The boom is the barrier and if we can get past that, I think we'll see people giving supersonic flight a lot more serious consideration," he said.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also hopes to develop a supersonic passenger aircraft that is quiet, economical and environmentally friendly, and expects to achieved it some time this century.
Spokesman Masahisa Honda said that while the agency currently had no aircraft in specific development, along current projections it predicted a supersonic business jet to enter the market some time after 2015.
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One of the frontrunners to do so is the Aerion SBJ, an 8-12 passenger business jet. "It will herald a return to supersonic civil flight without Concorde's environmental and economic drawbacks," said Aerion spokesman Adam Konowe.
He said development of a joint venture with aircraft manufacturers to produce the SBJ had been slowed by the recession, but once a deal was struck he anticipated a six-year development program to bring the aircraft to market. "We believe the SBJ will be certified, and enter service around the end of the decade -- 2020," he said.
Will you have enough passengers willing to pay higher fares to fly more quickly?
Chris Seymour, head of market analysis, Ascend
But not everyone is convinced that a return to supersonic passenger flight is just around the corner. Chris Seymour, head of market analysis with aviation experts Ascend, was skeptical that there would be much progress before at least 2030.
"I think there's so many issues to be considered that I certainly can't see it happening in the next 20 years," he said.
Seymour believes that although technological barriers will likely be overcome, the key factor in whether it will become a reality is whether a market exists that is prepared to pay a premium for the ultimate status symbol in business travel -- particularly in an air-travel market that is focused on low prices.
"Will you have enough passengers willing to pay higher fares to fly more quickly?" He said. "If you look at Concorde, that wasn't the case. It came along at a time when the 747 also came in, which carried more people for lower fares. That's where the market was."
Peter Warth, director of Complete Aviation Solutions, also believes that a return to supersonic flight is further off than some are making out.
"There seems to be multiple technological and commercial obstacles that will need to be cleared," he said.
But he conceded: "I'm sure that when the original plans for Concorde, the A380 and the 787 Dreamliner were announced, the same questions about whether it could be achieved were asked. But they eventually delivered. I think time will tell."
The Concorde supersonic transport is perhaps the most widely recognized aircraft in the world. Its cartoonishly futuristic lines, Mach 2 speed, and aura of posh made it an icon of popular culture. While only the rich could afford a ride, millions of people flocked to airports around the world to see the spectacle of a Concorde landing or takeoff.
Conceived in 1962, the Concorde was an unlikely collaboration of the British and French governments. The first prototype flew in 1969 amid great outpourings of national pride. Commercial service began in 1976.
New York to London in About Three Hours
On a typical flight, the Concorde cruised at Mach 2.02 (about 1,330 mph), more than twice as fast as any other jetliner. It cut New York-to-London flight time from more than seven hours to 3 hrs 15 min. Cruising altitude was nearly 60,000 feet, four miles above the subsonic masses.
The Concorde had a number of gee-whiz technical features never before (or since) seen on airliners: a slender curved delta wing, turbojet engines with afterburners, variable-geometry engine inlets, and an ingenious "droop snoot" that lowered for landing and take-off.
Hefty Price Tag
Its fame notwithstanding, the Concorde was perhaps the biggest financial disaster in the history of commercial aviation. After an investment of more than $4 billion, just 14 planes were sold. The only airline customers were British Airways and Air France, captive national airlines strong-armed into buying nine planes at $50 million apiece. When the two airlines balked at buying more, the governments gave them the last five for the equivalent of $2.00 each.
The rest of the world's airlines concluded that the Concorde, no matter what the price tag, could never turn a profit. Its sonic boom limited it to overwater routes. It burned as much fuel as a 747, but carried only a quarter the number of passengers. But the Concorde eventually found its niche as an exclusive trans-Atlantic time machine for the wealthy elite willing to pay up to $8,000 per ticket.
The Concorde had a perfect safety record until July 25, 2000, when an Air France flight crashed after take-off from Paris, killing everyone aboard. A tire had hit a piece of debris on the runway, causing it to burst. Flying chunks of rubber punctured a fuel tank, causing a leak and subsequent engine fire.
The Last Flight
After being retrofitted with Kevlar fuel tank liners and improved tires, the Concorde fleet took to the North Atlantic skies again in November, 2001. But the 9/11 terrorist attacks had depressed the air travel market, and the 30-year-old planes needed more and more maintenance. The last Concorde commercial flight left JFK and landed in London on October 23, 2003. The era of supersonic passenger flight had ended, perhaps forever.
Concordes are currently on display at the National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport; the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City; and the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
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