This week's Movie Monday takes a deep look at the birth of the first commercially operational supersonic airliner, Aerospatiale/BAe Concorde. The development of the Mach 2.4 aircraft goes back through the technical origins that served as the basis for the drooping nose, delta wing design of jet. The hour-long documentary examines the material and aerodynamic properties and the challenges to sustain both low and high-speed stability, as well as the trans-atlantic political dynamics of the supersonic aircraft fielded by Tupolev and Boeing.
One overlooked fact about the Concorde and its ultra-luxurious reputation is that it carries no more passengers than today's Embraer 190, which has a fuselage 6in wider and 2in taller than that of the supersonic transport. The comparisons between the two aircraft types diverge significantly from here.
The program also provides a retrospective on the 4,000h of flight testing for Concorde, including the extreme conditions under which the the prototype aircraft were subjected. Once the production models became available, the Anglo-French partnership, the foundation for today's Airbus, took Concorde on a world tour in 1972 which included sales of the aircraft to both China and Iran. Neither customer took delivery.
The prevailing wisdom about Concorde is that its thirsty Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines and its 100 premium passenger capacity made its operation a loss-making venture for Air France and British Airways during its life. Though according to BA, the airline invested £1 billion in the fleet during its operation and another site, concordesst.com, claims that the British carrier earned £1.75 billion in revenue from Concorde. Though despite that life-time profitability, low load factors, high fuel costs and expensive maintenance eventually made the retirement of the French and British Concordes inevitable.
Enjoy!
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