| Grounded for Bad |
14 April 2003
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Concorde Finally Grounded
The world's only supersonic passenger aircraft, the Franco-British Concorde, will go out of service sometime this year. While demand for a final ride may make it feasible to keep the beast aloft a little while longer, 2003 will be the last year for some time that London and New York are three hours apart. Economics triumph over glory again.
Most of the reasons are clear -- rising fuel costs, an aging fleet, and demand that has all but vanished since September 11, 2001. A less obvious reason, but the ultimate death knell for Concorde, is the unwillingness of aircraft manufacturers to commit to supersonic flight. Despite million of dollars in development, and million more in operation, no Concorde was ever sold the way 747s and Cessnas were. It remained a prototype.
Part of the problem lay on the environmental side. It is a noisy thing, even at subsonic speeds. It also guzzles fuel. After 30 years of flight, it isn't as green as it could be.
Yet it is a beautiful plane to look at, both on the ground and in the air. And to fly high enough to see the earth curve at the horizon is a spiritual sensation that no bottom line can express.
When the last Concorde lands after that last flight, mankind will be a little less than what it was. The dreams of flying faster, more beautifully will be replaced by flying cheaper, more efficiently. Flying will resemble, even more than now, a bus ride.