Concorde vs boeing?

Question

why did they stop using the Concorde? i heard Boeing are making a plane that can fly faster than the speed of sound (761mph) it going to be called the sonic cruiser or somethingf like that heres a concept picture i think they already made it ? i might be wrong!

http://home.online.no/~ronjoha2/fly/SonicCruiser.jpg

Answer 1

The Concorde was very limited due to the noise issues (it shook the ground when it took off and shook windows because it was so loud).  It also used an enormous amount of fuel and the planes were having maintanence issues (remember one crashed and burned?).  The new Boeing is quieter and uses less fuel and carries more people, but it is a number of years from being produced, if it is going to be produced.  The high gas prices may shelve the idea all together.  No one will be able to afford a ticket to ride.

Answer 2

The REASON it stopped flying is that they pulled it's airworthiness certificate. They  ( the government ) stated that an aircraft that blows a tire on takeoff and suffers catastrophic engine and airframe failures as a result is not airworthy. I cant blame them, but that really really sucks. Who knows if BA was tugging on there coat telling them to do it too, to save them the expense of the program. Its an absolute shame cause it was an Amazing aircraft.

Lonf live the aircraft that have to "faster" to get better fuel burn  eg: Concorde and the Blackbird.

Real JETS Make NOISE!

Answer 3

Concord was a loss leader as far as the airlines go.  It was noisy (but within the noise levels laid down - the Yanks tried to stop it landing at US airports because of this but were proved wrong).  The Concord that crashed in Paris was the result of a piece of debris on the runway and not of a structural or any other cause - not like the "Koncordski" that crashed at the Paris air show.  One other reason that the Yanks didn`t like it was that it beat their SST (Boeing) into service by a country mile!

Answer 4

Hi there, Concorde was retired from service not for any of the reasons given so far but because it had its certificate of airworthyness witdrawn because airbus withdrew technical support for the plane, this meant that if a fault happened then it couldnt be repaired, it wasnt a "loss leaders" far from it, the plane actually made money as it was seen as a prestigious way to travel, the other thing that helped to retire it was after 9/11, a lot of the customers chose not to fly at all and as a result the transatlantic trade dropped significantly, Concorde could have kept flying for many years, Sir Richard Branson offered to buy the Fleet but BA (which paid a token price for the plane from the Conservative governement in the uk after privatisation, as the aircraft was developed with taxpayers money) refuse to sell the fleet as it would have been bad for them.  The paris aircrash was a freak and was the only time that a plane had been lost in its entire history, and also in the late 60's and 70's Boeing lobbied congress to get the plane banned as the SST project was nowhere near compleation

Answer 5

Production of Cocorde was discontinued as it was not economically viable.The UK and France were the only purchasers,Concorde had limited passenger capacity and was not permitted to fly supersonic overland.

It's routes were restricted to the North Atlantic and so lost out to the greater capacity and versatility of the Tristar,Boeing 747 etc.

Answer 6

the whole point of Concorde was carrying people long distances quickly.  The real power users were CEO's who had to be on another continent to complete a mega business deal and absolutely had to be back home in the same day.  There were several high profile cases of this happening.  Unfortunately the CAA in America effectively killed this idea before it became fully established b citing noise pollution and preventing supersonic flight over US airspace(which extends further than you think) this added precious time to flights, which reduced the usefulness of the whole service.  It then became the province of media celebs, rock stars, and golden wedding celebrants etc.  It had to be fully sold to stand any chance of making money (or rather minimising losses) and strangely, flying at subsonic speeds actually used more fuel due to increased air friction at lower altitudes.  The accident in France was the final straw and even though not Concorde's fault,and despite the engineering solution being implemeted at great expense the service was killed off.  The ironic thing is that even though Brtiish Airways got the planes for peanuts, they couldn't make enough profit to keep them going.  The offer from Virgin to take over was probably refused because it would have exposed how inept BA was and they would rather kill the dream than be shown up by Richard Branson

Answer 7

Basically Concord was retired,partly through age ,partly because of the bad press after its one and only crash but mostly because of costs and political correctness (why should a few privileged etc etc )

As for Boeing they have been saying this for years ,but I don't think the "green lobby" will back them.you must remember that development costs for such a project can no longer be deducted from military developement of large Hi speed aircraft.also remember that Concord did not travell at the speed of sound, but was capable of twice that speed! 1350 miles per hour.

Answer 8

The concorde was stopped being used beacuase of its cost, the fuel costs, and the sound that the concorde makes.

The Sonic Cruiser is actually discontinued because Boeing didn't get the intrest of airlines. Before 9/11, the concept of the Sonic Cruiser was a good idea but after 9/11, airlines lost intrest of the Sonic Cruiser. The Sonic Cruiser has been replaced by a very sucessful aircraft known as the 787 which uses technologies that were meant to be used in the Sonic Cruiser.

Oh yeah, one thing. The Sonic Cruiser actually doesn't even reach the speed of sound. The Sonic Cruiser actually Cruises just a tiny bit slower than the speed of sound which makes the plane subsonic and not supersonic.

I'd like to see both the Concorde and the Sonic Cruiser flying..... I like the idea of supersonic travel.

Answer 9

The Americans had more money and the CIA. We had an industrial base sold out by successive governments.

Answer 10

The sonic cruiser program is dead. The SST program that someone else mentioned here was also halted after Boeing decided there was no market for the aircraft. It was not, despite what they said, because of being shown up by anyone.

Answer 11

Concorde was really designed for the trans-atlantic route. U.S.A effectively barred it from landing at major airports because Boeing were designing a similar plane at the time and were having problems so they didn't want competition. As a result airlines couldn't run economic schedules and didn't buy Concordes.  Only the original six were built.

Great shame.

Answer 12

no country will allow a supersonic overflight due to damage of the sonic boom, so it is a waste of time... Its why concord only did transatlantic to NY. No supersonic over land.

Answer 13

They stopped using the Concorde because it was a financial disaster...

Boeing makes airplanes that are money makers for the airlines.. Concorde never generated a dime.