What Caused The Demise Of Concorde

As regards commercial airplanes, they are by the speed of flight divided into two categories: subsonic and supersonic airplanes (are those who fly faster than sound), but today, because of the economy, are used only subsonic or “ordinary” jet (rarely piston) planes what we see every day in the sky as they fly the “wide world” …

Unfortunately, supersonic airplanes are not used today. They were a symbol of the 20th century which is, at least for now, according to this criterion was more advanced than the 21st century. However, in all probability, this is only a temporary condition and “supersonic” future come soon.

The fastest airliner in the world (was) a famous Franco-British aircraft Concorde, which is due to unprofitability in 2003 officially withdrawn from use.

Concorde is regarded as the most famous supersonic airliner in the world but it is not, as many think, the only, or even the first of its kind to be used for the purposes of civil air traffic. In fact, only three months before the European Concorde in the air took off a Russian supersonic airplane Tupolev Tu-144, it was in December 1968. The Americans also had their “ace in the hole,” supersonic plane “Boeing 2707” but they gave up on “supersonic race” and their plane never took off.

Airplane Concorde is a result of cooperation between the French company Aérospatiale and British BAC. The first plane was officially flew 02 March 1969 from the airport in Toulouse and in commercial traffic has officially entered on 21 January 1976. It is produced only 16 planes (+ 4 prototypes).

Read also article How is a Plane Constructed

When Did Concorde Crash

The cause of the demise of Concorde and supersonic commercial flight in general was unprofitability, but “the straw that broke the camel” or reason for the withdrawal of supersonic planes was the plane crash in which an Air France Concorde caught fire and crashed in 2000 during takeoff from Paris.

This “spectacular” plane crash had an incredible public response which resulted in an even greater reduction of interest in too expensive “supersonic” flights that were exclusively privilege of the rich.

The result of the disaster was the 113 victims (of which 4 on the land). Airplane was officially withdrawn from traffic three years later on 24 October 2003, and the last flight was on 26 November of the same year.

Technical-technological perfection of this plane is in the fact that it was twice faster than sound. It was flying at a speed of Mach 2.04 (about 2170 km / h) where with the announcement a few minutes earlier, broke the sound barrier. Distance between London and New York it could pass for only 3.5 hours compared to 7 hours as the flight with ordinary subsonic passenger aircraft.