View Single Post
  #8  
Old Posted Dec 18, 2016, 6:26 AM
LouisVanDerWright LouisVanDerWright is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 7,443
Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet View Post
In case you'd forget, both British-French cooperation and the Soviet Union managed to achieve something slightly different and twice faster a long time ago already.

These were developed in the 60s and turned fully operational in the mid 70s.
Concorde was so great that the US merely banned it from their airspace.
LOL, God bless 'murika, baby!.. and no one else, huh.
Oops, anyone grumpy at me right now?
Oh yeah because the Concorde was such elite and unique technology that the Americans couldn't touch it:


lockheedmartin.com

The Concorde was an awesome thing, but let's not be delusional about it's superiority or practicality as a business venture. The Concorde failed because it was a terribly inefficient business with a very limited market. The 707 design has more or less been regurgitated for half a century because it is the most efficient format for reliably hauling the most passengers with the least fuel.

This is like the same reasoning as people saying "oh America has fallen behind because they aren't building as many supertalls as China or the middle East" when really it's just economics. The buildings going up in those places are mostly regurgitations of technology that was already demonstrated here 50-100 years ago and the majority of them are designed and engineered by American firms. The jetliner retains it form for business reasons just as the skyscraper in American cities like Chicago is often 30-40 floors and 300-400' for residential towers and 35-50 floors and 600-700' tall for office. Those are the most efficient programs for towers, sure the occasional supertall is profitable simply for cache and novelty, but it's not a good standard business model. Same goes for airplanes, sure a supersonic jet is great for spying or ferrying around super rich people, but the best model was perfected by the 707 and hasn't reallly changed since.

Last edited by LouisVanDerWright; Dec 18, 2016 at 6:38 AM.
Reply With Quote