Friday, October 24, 2003

The end of an era

Sadly, today saw the last commercial flight of the Concord which left John F. Kennedy Airport for London carrying about a hundred celebrities. During its service life Concorde has been a victim of politics and despite its advanced design has been superseded by slower less advanced aircraft.

It almost seems as though the world is taking a technological step backwards by putting these marvelous machines into museums rather than keeping them flying. Worst of all the pig-headed attitude off the British airways bosses who prevented Richard Branson from taking over operation of the Concord a few months ago. I'm certain that if anyone could run Concord at a profit it would be him.

Having lived for many years under the flight path of Concord as it traveled from London to Abu-Dhabi I can say from experience that the noise pollution from a sonic boom is far less than that of a slow moving aircraft such as a 747 which moves across the sky slowly. I, like so many people, will be sad to see it go.

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