Why didn't passenger aircraft evolve any further after Concord?

Question

Why didn't passenger aircraft evolve any further after Concord?

Answer 1

Commercial aircraft are still evolving. They will never stop doing so. It is the nature of the industry to make continuous improvements.

Answer 2

The evolution you mention would be in speed when the Concorde is considered. There are practical limitations for speed and that is precisely what stopped the evolution in that direction. The passenger aircraft evolved much in other areas like economy, comforts, size and safety. And they will continue to evolve.

Speed was a fancy, just like the Cheetahs of Africa. Devastating speed, but several other shortcomings. And not surprisingly the saying "Cheetahs dont prosper" and verging on the border of extinction. The more practical leopard thrives in Africa.

The Concorde was just a specialized evolution.

Answer 3

who said that?? check out the Airbus 380

Answer 4

A380 slower but more viable lots were learnt from the Concord that will be used in future aviation.

Answer 5

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is currently at the top of the passenger aircraft evolution tree.  The A380 will go down as a commercial flop.

Uses materials that weren't dreamt of when the Concorde was first designed.  Extremely fuel efficient, high speed cruise at .85 Mach.

Orders as follows:  740  

ANA at 50

Air New Zealand at 8

First Choice at 12

Icelandair at 4

Northwest Airlines at 18

JAL at 35

Korean Air at 10

Ethiopian Airlines at 10

Continental Airlines at 25

Air China at 15

Shanghai Airlines at 9

LOT Polish Airlines at 8

Royal Air Maroc at 4

Air Canada at 37

China Eastern Airlines at 15

Vietnam Airlines at 4

International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) at 74

LCAL (Low-Cost Aircraft Leasing) at 21

Hainan Airlines at 8

China Southern Airlines at 10

Air India at 27

Kenya Airways at 9

Qantas at 45

Air Pacific at 5

Pegasus at 6

787 VIP identified- PrivatAir Sky Peace Limited at 2

787 VIPs unidentified at 7

Aeromexico at 2

unidentified customer at 2

Monarch Airlines at 6

TUI Group at 11

CIT Aerospace at 10

Singapore Airlines at 20

Avianca at 10

Nakash Group at 2

Jet Airways at 10

unidentified at 2

Azerbaijan Airlines at 3

ALAFCO at 22

Virgin Atlantic at 15

Travel Service at 1

unidentified customer at 8

Arik Air at 7

Royal Jordanian at 4

Aviation Capital Group at 5

Qatar at 30

S7 Group at 15

Uzbekistan Airways at 2

Air Berlin at 25

Aeroflot at 22

LAN at 26

unidentified at 2.

Answer 6

Concord had a very limited payload which compared with the cost made it an expensive excercise. Today the airlines want as many bodies in one aircraft to make it profitable.Although much of the technology learned from Concord have probably been incorporated in modern aircraft design.

Answer 7

Because Boeing didn't like being overtaken.

Answer 8

I understand that there are in existence plans/designs for a super-sonic aircraft which can carry a larger pay load than Concorde  carried. As to whether the design will ever get off the drawing board is quite a different matter.To travel at super-sonic speed an aircraft uses a great amount of fuel, consequently it needs to weigh as little as possible. ( Concorde was a very small aircraft, a midget compared to conventional  passengers planes)This was somewhat of a disadvantage cost wise, because it meant that her fares were so expensive  that they were beyond the reach of many potential passengers. To build a larger version of her would be in these `politically correct` days almost suicidal. The protests against such a craft would be many, what with the cost of the fuel and the `damage` to the environment  and the acceleration of global warming. A great shame, because super-sonic air travel is the only way to travel! Believe me, in Concorde I got from London to New York in about two hours now it can take anything from eight to twelve hours. She was a truly beautiful and remarkable flying machine.

Answer 9

Who says it hasn't?

Answer 10

its all down to cost.........oil,taxes,staff,oh the planes,hundreds of billions.......they would never be able to recover the cost from the customer

Answer 11

The huge developement cost to get Concorde made was in an unique era.

Britain & France signed agreements that the plane WOULD be made and that neither party could back out.

The boffins in the USA said it was not sure a supersonic passenger aircraft could be done and stopped development.

With the "no back down clause" Britain/France pressed ahead and created Concorde. The cost was huge. The money spent was never going to be recouped, but that was the age that it was conceived in.

Technically, the fuel burn cost to fly supersonic is high. Also, Concorde had to go supersonic over sea as breaking the sound barrier caused a sonic boom that could break windows over land (litigation?).

Aircraft have evolved indeed. The Airbus A320 in 1988 was the first commercial fly by wire aircraft, saving weight and providing protections. I love flying G-BUSB as it was the first commercial delivery of this new technology.

Look also at weight saving with composite materials. More efficient engines. Reduction in weight from state of the art electronics for instruments and navigation.

Passenger aircraft have evolved, unfortunately speed is too high a cost.

Answer 12

It is because of the the influence of Boeing with the US Congress.  Having been beaten in a technical sense by the Europeans, the US did all it could to protect it`s national champion by lobbying against the Concord on noise grounds.

Meanwhile, Boeing responded with the 747, which was on the drawing board at the same time as Concord, and we all know how that turned out.

This then led to the establishment of Airbus in an attempt to challenge Boeing on equal terms.