Was it a good or bad idea to retire Concord?

Answer 1

The wheel coming off had little to do with the retirement of
the Concorde which possibly has the nº1 ranking as far as
safety per mile record of any aircraft ever built. The problem
was that the aircraft was fuel inefficiency and cost of maintenance,
added to the fact that it carried very few passengers which made
it uneconomical with regard to cost per passenger/mile. To
change the engines would entail a complete re-drawing of the
whole structure which, put on paper, would take two or three
years to design and perhaps another year of flight testing.
Bearing all this in mind, no company was willing to take on this
task which could spell bankruptcy. All hail to the Concord for what
it did achieve. A lot was learnt from the venture and is being
applied in new projects, civil or military.

Answer 2

Absolutely a good idea.
The Concorde was old, caused plenty of problems for people who had to actually hear its engines pass by their homes and was not very convienient even though it was fast because of its high costs - $1600 a ticket and up !?!

Then consider the fact that the airframes were deteriorating and a piece falling off could cause the entire plane to be destroyed leaving no survivors.

If this sounds familiar, it is the exact same problem being faced by the SPACE SHUTTLE. Why put lives in danger needlessly? Work must be done to build a replacement based on new technology rather than that of the pre 1980's.

This is why I am so happy newer aircraft like the Airbus A380 was produced.

I also supposse in a way that rich people who can actually afford to fly in this manner are considered less expendable because of their high profile lives and careers - preventing losing 100 of them on a jet in this manner is treated as a high priority.

Lets face the facts. Concorde was an ELITIST device just like the typical Luxury SUV. The fuel economy was horrible, the sound polution was horrible, especially for an aircraft this size and only the rich or wealthy could really make use of it anyway.
Not to mention that the underlying computer tech was virtualy eons old - the computers weren't even as good as that in a typical Playstation Portable in terms of processing power.

It was a retirement LONG OVERDUE.

Don't let its safety ratings fool you. This jet was not mass produced like 747's or other Beoing jets. It was more like an ultra-luxury jet produced in small numbers and flown far less frequently.

Answer 3

I think they could have updated it with all the new technology. The Space Shuttle is quite old as well and has had things go wrong with it. Nobody died flying aboard Concorde.

Answer 4

it was a good idea to retire concord, too old too much to maintain

Answer 5

the french are such a negative race who do not invest in any think other than tourist attractions. i watched the last flight and i have began to understand why over centuries whole nations become irrelevant the french do not stand for anything imagine the Greeks one thousand years ago

Answer 6

I think it was a bad idea....although I personally had never been on there, my Grampy did when he was alive so, the day it had its last flight was very sad for our family.....and I`m sure many more people had their own fond memories too......I think money is being saved on the wrong things sometimes do you?

Answer 7

It was way overdue. The technology was ancient and too expensive to maintain. Systems on that plane were older than the original IBM PC!!!

Answer 8

It's a good idea. Monkeys are lovable creatures and make wonderful friends and pets.

Answer 9

yes because it was to extravagant for the ordinary people to travel on more designed for the well of off this world and hardly what you could call economic in this oil crisis world. cant really say i've missed it really. also less noise now it's gone. to

Answer 10

Aviation history