by garryrussell » Thu Jul 04, 2013 3:50 am
I think that Concorde will stand as the greatest civil aeroplane project of all time.
this is largely because of the time it was designed it broke new grounds of technology in just about every requirement for the design but was largely done the old fashioned way with mean scribbling on paper using clever maths and the like
Even though towards the end there was computerisation, it was very limited.
All this was done in two languages by countries using different measurement systems.
The language, cultural and political obstacles were bad enough without all the design efforts needed.
It did of course break new ground and raised the education and knowledge of aerospace technology throughout the world. Even though as a production job it was not a commercial success, the whole aircraft industry learned form this design that could sustain supersonic flight when many military aircraft could not for any length of time.
It really was something that needed to be done and it is sad that it was not followed through into a MARK two (excuse the pun) SST.
The more you think about Concorde, the more you realise just what a magnificent job it was. The British and French learned to work together along with some other nations inputs and help so the seeds for Airbus.
As an exercise of how much Concorde cost and how much the manufacturer got back it is not a shining business example, but when the overall picture is viewed and the benefits appreciated it was money very well spent in the long term....all done with with very clever people of exceptional talent in a pool of such conventional skills is never going to be seen again
Things are done very different now.
Concorde was unique, in many, many ways. So much against it yet it came out on top through sheer determination and the belief that even though we can't do this today, we know it can and will be done tomorrow.
Worth the watch... what an amazing aircraft! Thought I'll share it here.
