Le fin de Concorde (or something)

24 Oct 2003

In case you'd not noticed, today marks the final flight of Concorde, the worlds only supersonic commercial air liner. No longer will you be able to experience three-hour London to New York flights with an odd combination of in-flight vintage champaign and a passenger compartment as spacious as a National Express coach (apparently; I've never flown on it). A couple of high-profile safety problems didn't help, but the real problem was the cost; there were never enough harried executives desperately wanting day trips to New York to cover the inordinate cost of the fuel. If there had been more demand, the price would've come down, other supersonic air liners would've been built, and we probably wouldn't notice the decommisioning of Concorde. As it is, comercial supersonic travel is, at least for now, consigned to the history books along with that long pointy nosecone.

White elephant of the skies, we salute you.

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