13. The Anglo French Concorde
This Aircraft is famous on two counts: firstly, it is the only commercial, Supersonic Jet Powered Aircraft flying; second, it has proven to be commercially unsuccessful, why? There are those who argue that it is now paying its way. This might be conceded, were it not for the fact that over £2 billion in costs have had to be written off by both governments over the intervening years since it first flew.
Consider the following: no one in the world's Jet Powered Aircraft Industry today is likely to challenge the statement that in its way, Concorde is technologically brilliant. And yet, regardless of this undoubted brilliance, it has proven to be a commercial failure compared with, for example, the Boeing 747 operating in the same long range commercial market. Why? The answer here, which is a matter of record, was known to the inventor of this concept long before Concorde ever entered commercial service. His objections, which are a matter of record, were rejected by the senior BAC engineers of the day. The French & British engineers were then so blinded and in love with their own technological brilliance that they could not possibly concede that their brilliant conception was unlikely to ever be a commercially viable proposition.
Let us consider, what is the single factor above all others which would determine the relative commercial success of both the Boeing 747 and Concorde over the same range each operating at their respective cruise conditions? The answer is the Aircraft's payload capability per unit weight of fuel employed per unit of thrust per second
The Boeing Aircraft was designed to capture as best it could the largest share of the world's major long range commercial business. How well it has achieved this is now history.
The Anglo French Concorde was also aimed at the long haul commercial routes across the world but, here also, the result is now a matter of aviation history. The essential and obvious difference between these two Aircraft was, of course, the fact that Concorde was required and designed to fly supersonically at its cruise flight condition, whereas, the 747 was to operate subsonically at its, cruise condition. The respective Aircraft designers knew this before they even begun to build anything. Why then, was Concorde unsuccessful regardless of its technological brilliance, and the Boeing Aircraft the success it is, even, now?
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