The Mach 2 Concorde - Viable Only Because Of A Brief Overlap In Two Technology Trend Lines!
The ambitious undertaking by England and France to surpass the US and to produce a Mach 2 commercial aircraft, had clear profit justification, a business-financial pay-off - catering to those few wealthy individuals to whom it would be worth-while to pay perhaps ten times normal sub-sonic air-fares - so as to "arrive" at a destination - via the Concorde - "before" it had left the departure city (in local times, beating the sun).
World-wide, there were a sufficient number of such individuals in various walks-of-life - officials of the UN, diplomats from governments, highly paid executives, celebrities and entertainers, who were troubled by a time conflict - and with no restraints on their travel budgets.
With the undoubted additional rationale of achieving great international prestige - perhaps of equal or greater national importance as the commercial profit potential - England and France, in a rare joint enterprise, had combined their technologies and finances to design, build and (later) to fly commercially a Mach 2 Supersonic commercial Jet aircraft, the Concorde.
The Concorde was a graceful, captivating sight and concept, arguably potentially competitively viable In the tele-communication world of the 1970s, (prior to today's instant and international visual and audio systems, which make "distance" immaterial) - and with the Mach 1 - 3 USAF military aircraft's operational performance validating the functional reliability of supersonic flight, the concept of commercial flying "beating the sun" made business sense.
If a UN diplomat or a major corporation executive needing to visit a crisis "hot-spot", or attend an important business conference across the ocean; if a high-value entertainer or Hollywood luminary had a time-conflict to attend - or to perform at an important affair - such situations proved the value of "beating-the-clock", a forcing function to the "special-situation" validation of the inordinate expense of such an aircraft.
The comparatively much higher costs of supersonic travel, even in conjunction with perhaps only a third of subsonic commercial travelers per flight (Concorde - about 100 passengers) would not be significant relative to the value of the "time" gained.
(Note: The about three-decades of successful operational life achieved by the Concorde, attest to its financial justification - as well as the intrinsic value of providing a considerable amount of national pride to both England and France.
) Prestige-wise, for both England and France, the eyes of the world would be on news photos of departing or arriving world-class leaders, celebrates and luminaries - the graceful Concorde always in the background.
Thus, it was the (propitious) happenstance of the immediately-prior development of USA's Mach 1- 3 military aircraft, spurting ahead of audio-visual tele-communications technology, that provided the opportunity for the British-French Concorde.
Absent the overwhelming development costs of supersonic flight - paid for by the US Air Force - never could commercial aviation have funded a supersonic regime, even by, or with, the US airlines.
Thus - the unlikely achievement - the beautiful and iconic Concorde!
World-wide, there were a sufficient number of such individuals in various walks-of-life - officials of the UN, diplomats from governments, highly paid executives, celebrities and entertainers, who were troubled by a time conflict - and with no restraints on their travel budgets.
With the undoubted additional rationale of achieving great international prestige - perhaps of equal or greater national importance as the commercial profit potential - England and France, in a rare joint enterprise, had combined their technologies and finances to design, build and (later) to fly commercially a Mach 2 Supersonic commercial Jet aircraft, the Concorde.
The Concorde was a graceful, captivating sight and concept, arguably potentially competitively viable In the tele-communication world of the 1970s, (prior to today's instant and international visual and audio systems, which make "distance" immaterial) - and with the Mach 1 - 3 USAF military aircraft's operational performance validating the functional reliability of supersonic flight, the concept of commercial flying "beating the sun" made business sense.
If a UN diplomat or a major corporation executive needing to visit a crisis "hot-spot", or attend an important business conference across the ocean; if a high-value entertainer or Hollywood luminary had a time-conflict to attend - or to perform at an important affair - such situations proved the value of "beating-the-clock", a forcing function to the "special-situation" validation of the inordinate expense of such an aircraft.
The comparatively much higher costs of supersonic travel, even in conjunction with perhaps only a third of subsonic commercial travelers per flight (Concorde - about 100 passengers) would not be significant relative to the value of the "time" gained.
(Note: The about three-decades of successful operational life achieved by the Concorde, attest to its financial justification - as well as the intrinsic value of providing a considerable amount of national pride to both England and France.
) Prestige-wise, for both England and France, the eyes of the world would be on news photos of departing or arriving world-class leaders, celebrates and luminaries - the graceful Concorde always in the background.
Thus, it was the (propitious) happenstance of the immediately-prior development of USA's Mach 1- 3 military aircraft, spurting ahead of audio-visual tele-communications technology, that provided the opportunity for the British-French Concorde.
Absent the overwhelming development costs of supersonic flight - paid for by the US Air Force - never could commercial aviation have funded a supersonic regime, even by, or with, the US airlines.
Thus - the unlikely achievement - the beautiful and iconic Concorde!