
When Concorde was the future - sohkamyung
https://www.1843magazine.com/design/look-closer/when-concorde-was-the-future
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pjc50
Short on text, but a good selection of photographs.

For people really, _really_ interested in Concorde, I reccomend this thread:
[https://www.pprune.org/tech-log/423988-concorde-
question-100...](https://www.pprune.org/tech-log/423988-concorde-
question-100.html)

(yes that's page 100!)

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FabHK
That 100+ pages Concorde thread on PPRuNe, with lots of technical details,
anecdotes, and actual Concorde captains and engineers chipping in, is
absolutely epic!

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botskonet
I saw one in real life for the first time this summer, at the Museum of Flight
near Seattle. It looked beautiful of course, but the cabin was incredibly
confined. Not like airlines are known for their cabin space, but I don't know
if I'd take a faster trip in such a confined space over a cramped seat on a
longer flight.

~~~
ghaff
It may be worth noting that, while the Concorde had smaller seats than the
first class seats of that era, those first class seats were still nothing like
modern lie-flat business.

~~~
rst
The point of lie-flat seats is to let you doze off on long trips. The point of
Concorde is that even trans-Atlantic trips weren't log enough for that to
matter. You don't get lie-flat seats in first or business class on many US
domestic flights either, for the same reasons.

~~~
ghaff
That’s starting to change though. United is reconfiguring a lot of their
aircraft for Polaris seating even domestically. The seats are more comfortable
though I agree it doesn’t make as big a difference on even long daytime
flights.

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phobosdeimos
Looking back the 1970s was also when mass tourism in Europe went in full
swing. Paid holidays became a human right. While in the US low cost shuttle
flights were the new railways.

~~~
agumonkey
And club of rome published the meadows report in 72. Odd.

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claydavisss
And soon:

When the AirBus A380 was the future

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dingaling
Sadly the A380 never was the future, it was a reincarnation of the MD-12 of
the 1990s.

The only way to obtain a magnitude reduction in seat-km costs was to go all-in
on advanced aerodynamics like a blended-wing-body. Once Airbus had shied away
from that there really was no logical reason to continue.

~~~
FabHK
Still, a wonderful plane for pax. Spacious, smooth & quiet.

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snag
The main picture is F-WTSC . It was the test flight registration of F-BTSC,
the plane which crashed in 2000.

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nodesocket
There is a popular video on YouTube outling the reasons why Concorde failed.
Mainly it came down to market, expense, and not a business fit.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a_wuykzfFzE&t=12s](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a_wuykzfFzE&t=12s)

~~~
suzzer99
Sonic boom over land (IE - people) was also a big issue. They originally
thought 3rd world countries would be ok with it. Which turned out to be wrong.

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nraynaud
I am a bit puzzled by the pollution remark, wealthy people are flying private
more than ever, the general public has more cars that are each bigger, and the
General Aviation is recovering form 2008

~~~
lucozade
Having tried to revise for exams while they landed a few miles away, I'm going
to suggest that the article is including noise pollution as well as
particulate pollution. It was bloody loud.

~~~
nraynaud
when I was the kid they were a Rhythm in my life, twice a day, at 11am and 5pm

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kevinkimball
I think the article is incorrect, they say that only British Airways and Air
France operated the Concorde, but I believe Singapore Airlines did as well.

~~~
gsnedders
BA's G-BOAD was painted on one side in Singapore Airlines livery, and jointly
operated for three round trips to Singapore via Bahrain; I don't know if any
Singapore Airlines crew were involved in the operation.

A more obvious example of another airline is the Dallas to Washington flights
(and on to London and Paris), which were operated by Braniff airlines crews
within the US (as they couldn't be operated by any non-US airline), and the
aircraft changed to US registrations for each of the domestic legs.

~~~
drfuchs
The Concord wasn’t allowed to fly at super-sonic speeds while over the
continental US, so the poor Braniff pilots didn’t get to really have the full
experience (other than in training).

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pivo
As an aside, that advert for the Rolex GMT Master Chronometer says the price
for the steel model is $255 USD. Today that watch lists for $9,250. Adjusted
for inflation, $255 in 1970 would be only about $1700 today.

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wbl
Mechanical watches have become status symbols.

~~~
rconti
But they haven't become more expensive to make.

Likely this points more to something like the skyrocketing wealth disparity
which means $1700 is no longer enough to spend on a veblen good.

~~~
pjc50
Perhaps the handmade ones have due to "Baumol cost disease"; it's highly
skilled manual labour, not mechanised production.

~~~
bunderbunder
Plenty of other watch manufacturers have gone toward partially or completely
mechanised assembly of their mechanical watches.

I would guess that, if it hasn't become more mechanised in that time, it's
because their margins have grown large enough that there's not much incentive
in doing so.

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garmaine
Technically the margins haven’t grown if the cost has also increased.

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bunderbunder
Well, it depends.

If the sales price increases faster than the costs, then the margins have
grown. If the sales price increases slower than the costs, then the margins
have shrunk.

