Concorde supersonic transport operations and economics

Personal anecdote of flying Concorde in the early 1990s ($2500 fare upgrade). Used to illustrate the practical limits of engineering — Concorde retired after a tarmac-debris crash, restricted routes due to sonic boom regulations, expensive maintenance with no slack time. Includes a side note on a king/tycoon who chartered British Airways for round-the-world weekend trips.

One of the videos I'd like to talk about — the Concorde in the mid-eighties, and the SST built around 1980, the supersonic transport. Instead of a 747 at about 40,000 to 45,000 feet, going out into the edge of space where there's no air, if you can get to Mach 16 you could go up and out and back down. That was the SST plan. They said for a commercial — the British supersonic transport from the 1980s showed the capability of how they could build something. The one in the United States — we actually looked at the Concorde, with the French and the British. Anybody know what happened? A plane hit some junk on the tarmac, on the Concorde's wheels on takeoff.

Tom's personal flight on the Concorde in the 1990s. Three teaching points: (1) skin-temperature limits speed, not engine thrust; (2) flight short enough to suppress jet lag; (3) maintenance neglected because aircraft fleet too small to spare downtime — broken tray tables, dirty cabin. Sets up aluminum-skin temperature limits and titanium replacement.

Did I tell you the story that the SST, the Concorde that the French and British built, flew not on speed but on temperature? The skin temperature was limiting their speed. They had sensors to measure the temperature of the outside skin, so if it was really cold out, it could go faster. I flew the Concorde once. This was back in the 90s, and I'd never flown a supersonic transport — most people hadn't. I had to go to Europe for something, and MIT had to pay my business-class airfare, and I said, okay, I will spend the $2,400 for the upgrade coming back out of my own pocket just to see what it's like to fly on an SST.

Tom's personal flight on the Concorde, used to illustrate (a) the material limits of supersonic commercial aviation, and (b) the maintenance compromises forced by a thin fleet. Sets up the failed National Aerospace Plane.

Anyone ever hear of the National Aerospace Plane? This was twenty, twenty-five years ago, just after the Reagan Star Wars defense buildup of the mid '80s. After they had designed the space shuttle, they decided they wanted to build a National Aerospace Plane to compete with the British Concorde. Anybody know what the Concorde is? It's out of business now. It was a supersonic commercial jet that would go from London to New York in less than five hours at about Mach 2.