Should we bring concorde back or use the Airbus A380?

Question

Should we bring concorde back or use the Airbus A380?

Answer 1

Supersonic airline flight turned out to be too costly to be practical, and there is not likely to be a new supersonic airliner in the lifetime of anyone living now.

The A380, on the other hand, is also an impractical concept, and it is likely only a few will be built, and they will not stay in service for a long time.

The Concorde and the A380 were designed for completely different mission profiles, and would not replace each other.  The airliner of the future is compact, fast, simple, and economical to operate.  Something like the B787.

Answer 2

The Concorde was a beautiful airplane with spectacular performance but was a huge financial loss for the England and France the two countries that developed the aircraft.  Only 20 were built and only 16 saw service and were in effect given to the national airlines British Airways and Air France.  No airlines bought the plane.  They were such fuel guzzlers that the price to fly on it was easily five times what you'd pay to travel from Europe to America on a subsonic airliner like the 747.  As a result, and certainly very unfairly for the tax payers of England and France who financed the venture, only the rich and famous could afford to travel on the Concorde.

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The A-380 may in the end prove to be just as much a financial failure for Airbus.  Some of the latest figures I've read say that airbus claims a breakeven point of 300 examples while industry analists put the number much higher.  In an era where large hub airports have become a nightmare for the traveling public Airbus has designed and is building an aircraft which will make the problem worse because it designed for hub to hub service rather than the point to point service that Boeing is building the 787 to serve.  The A-380 will see service but mostly in the heavily populated and traveled Pacific rim and American west coast service.  We will see the A-380 in service for many years but it will not have the same effect that the 747 had in the 1970s and the years since.  The general public is used to wide body airliners and many will be warry of climbing aboard such a huge aircraft with 4 or 5 hundred other people. The novelty will wear off and the exercise rooms, bars, and gift shops will be filled with seats.  Whether or not it will ever make a profit for Airbus remains to be seen.

Answer 3

Where are you traveling from and back to;-- London? The Concord, I'm afraid, is a marvelously crafted "dead duck"! It turned out to be 'too RICH for ANY popular patronage' and too NOISY for the people very far away from its destination airport(s?)--how many WERE there--who were subjected to its horrible sonic BOOMS when preparing for a landing. (I suspect that the sonic booms produced by the plane when departing from and returning to London took place over the open waters--very careful planning by British Air, eh w'at, old chap? I do hope, though that at least one of the dazzling aircraft will be preserved in flying condition in the countries that developed it-- as show pieces. I'm not at all familiar with the Airbus A380, but what little I've heard about the craft, has all been complimentary to my unexperienced eyes and ears. If you're not truly anti-American, why don't you patronize the Overseas Air Company (I'm sure there's one in London and probably elsewhere in the English Isles that utilizes the Boeing 747.  Everything I've heard about them has been complimentary, and BOY! they surely are raking in the patronage with overseas flights EVERYWHERE now.

Answer 4

Concorde is gone forever.  So if you don't like the Airbus I suggest walking and swimming.

Answer 5

The A380 is going to make its opperators alot more money than the Concord ever did.

Answer 6

The Concorde. Sad she's gone, it's like we as humans are technically de-evolving.

Answer 7

Very different missions. The A380 is a sardine can, the Concorde was, well, the Concorde. I fly private jets, so not at all into the "let's pack 'em in as many as we can fit" mentality.You'll likely see a supersonic business jet (yes!!) before you'll see another supersonic airliner.

Answer 8

The Concorde is gone and never coming back, the only hope you have of ever traveling at Mach 1+ is if the new biz jet been created(can't remember its name) ever makes it off the drawing board. So i guess you have no choice cus the A380 is here to say even if it'll only travel at Mach 0.85.

Answer 9

Concorde is a short range airplane.  It can't fly the mission the A380 is designed for- long range hub-to-hub.

Plus Concorde is not up to modern safety standards-  the engines alone, podded together so you get a dual engine failure if one blows, would not be allowed in a new design today.

Answer 10

Why can't we have both?  I don't like choosing.  Both are awesome airplanes.

Answer 11

A380 concorde not coming back and 380 more fuel efficient