Well, it’s not really a jet, but I hear you can buy passage on that space shuttle thingy…
Evidently Cisco’s reading skills in this thread are as good as my observational ones.
D’OH…d’oh…d’oh…Lack of sleep…draining my…super…reading…powers…
I remember watching the Concord taking off from Montego Bay in Jamaica back in the 80’s. Our plane was really late, so we sat right on the grassy banks overlooking the runway to watch it take off - it was amazing (and very loud, IIRC). One second it was moving down the runway, and the next second the nose was up, and before we knew it, it was gone. I remember that it seemed to take off straight up. Very cool, I still have pictures of it somewhere.
I thought the Concorde was a copy of the TU-144? 
I saw a documentary about Sikorsky on The History channel, and I could have sworn they said he had the original idea for a Concorde-type plane.
[nitpick]
Concorde cruises at about M2.04 (+/-) but could top out at about M2.3 if pushed.
[/nitpick]
Here was something about it:
http://www.concordesst.com/history/60s.html
I was flying back to the east coast from New Mexico in 1989, and at one point, the pilot came on and said, “If you look out your window, you can see the suspersonic jet Concorde.”
Well, obviously it wasn’t literally “supersonic” at the time, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t know which-a-way to look, and never saw it. I still wonder what it was doing so far away from home. Maybe it was lost.
Despite the fact that the TU-144 flew first, it WAS a ‘copy’ of Concorde, they just managed to get their test flight in first.
I saw a great program last year about how the Russian were stealing the plans for Concorde as it was being developed. They got pretty much all the details except for a few critical design points (particularly the wing leading edge IIRC).
So the Russians had to ‘guess’ the bits that they hadnt stolen.
And that’s why the TU-144 is CRAP and crashed a lot.
I saw it do a touch-and-go at the Farnborough Air Show some years ago … even longer ago than that, I went aboard the one they have at the aviation museum at Duxford. But I was never lucky enough to fly on Concorde. Looks like I never will be, now. Shame, really.
Sad they’ll be retired from service just before the 100th anniverary of the Wright’s first powered flight.
I recently flew a small plane into Kennedy Airport and taxied right past a Concorde. Way cool. Unfortunately that’s the closest I’ll every get to flying in it.
I just read that Virgin is offering to buy them for $1.60…yes, one dollar and 60 cents. The deal might actually go through.
I hate to be the only one to bring up the past, but IIRC, back when there was the rush to build SST’s, the US had one in the works as well. However, US environmentalist worked hard to stop production, causing no end of grief for Boeing (or Lockhead?) who had already invested so much money.
It was considered a flying SUV - huge oil hog, horrible pollutant and noise disaster. I believe the US government even voted to ban them here. It was only through a lot of diplomatic effort that the BA and French Concords were allowed to land at JFK and Dulles - but they had to promise not to break any sound barrier over US soil.
Yeah, they looked kinda sexy, but I guess I am the only one who thinks, “good riddance.”
[Hijack]
So with a $10,000 fare, was there any chance of being able to pull a “death in the family” stunt like George did on Seinfeld? 
I wonder why they couldn’t have operated on any oceanic route. No need to go supersonic until you’re offshore, and too far away from anyone to cause any annoyance. You’d think it could have been very successful on all the trans-Pacific routes. Maybe then a critical point would have been reached beyond which it would have made sense to invest in developing more efficient and quieter models.
It’s too bad that it wasn’t possible to extend the option of supersonic travel to more people. Flying generally used to be very exclusive, and I’m sure when the first jet transports were rolled out, they too were aimed at the high end traveller. But after decades of commercial jet operations, the cost has come down to where the middle class can afford tickets.
Return tickets are £8230. They just said so on the BBC.
It was expected to need £40m in maintenance costs in the next few years, premium travel is down by 40%, and Concorde’s fuel costs are three times that of most other airliners.
I’d say across the Atlantic IS an oceanic route anyway.
Concorde has a range of 3800 miles. How far is it across the Pacific ?
The (now deceased :() pilot told me this - the plane can only go supersonic for 3 hours before the skin gets too high a risk of rupturing. Plus there’s the problem of fuel. Therefore the Atlantic was the only practical transoceanic route. I guess if a US airline owned one, they could do Hawaii, but that’d be it really.
http://www.concordesst.com/latestnews.html
It does make sense, in a way. Branson is offering BA the takeover of 7 aircraft without any write-off, after they’ve been in use for 30 years. BA would be mad not to take the offer, business-wise. Plus, this may have a political angle as well: since the British government pretty much donated the planes to BA back in the day, they might decide to butt in on this decision, and decide in the favour of a Virgin takeover.
Interesting. FWIW, I deem Virgin and Branson capable enough to make this decision. I also believe that they could be trusted with the care for Concorde, as they would undoubtedly hire a lot of BA’s current Concorde maintenance staff.
BTW, the site I linked to is a treasure altogether.
Steve! Were we there at the same time? Would have been '77 I think.
And bernse, my memory must be faulty about the speed counter in the cabin. Apologies.
Is it true that the Concorde did not carry any passenger bags, as the weight limits were such that it was not possible?
In other words, the luggage of the passengers was taken on another flight that took off earlier, and arrived a little later?