We fondly remember the days when the Concorde jet offered the fastest journey across the Atlantic ocean for those prepared to pay the premium price for a seat. The national airlines of Britain and France offered this service from 1976 until 2003 and it delivered the thrill of travelling at a speed of Mach 2 - 2180 kph when the plane was high over the ocean.
Unfortunately, in all those years Concorde never turned a profit. It was a small plane by todays standards and only carried between 92 and 128 passengers each trip, depending on the seating arrangements. It was more a venture to enhance the technical reputation of the British and French nations by using military technology to create the lure of high speed travel. Its competitors opted for "bigger and slower " which delivered more seats and lowered travel costs for the tourist industry.
Eventually a horror crash revealed the thin safety edge needed to achieve this sort off speed and Concorde lost its allure. These magnificent aircraft have been retired to museums and today the competition hinges on the " jumbo jet " and its load capacity that underpins the tourist trade.
Once again the aircraft industry is looking for speed in the race to develop and sell new aircraft. Military technology has advanced a long way since Concorde and it may be possible to more than halve the flight time that era offered. That would probably mean premium seat prices but the crystal ball gazers seem confident that the upper end of the market would support a faster journey between nations.
This new edition of the speed race in the skies is coming at the worst possible time. The jet engine was a big advance over the propeller but it also delivered air pollution and the amazing increase in air travel is delivering pollution high in the skies that is one of the reasons we face a hotter planet. The jet airplane is now firmly in the sights of those pleading for action to save the Earth from rising sea levels and economic catastrophe.
Taking an overseas holiday on a jet plane is fast becoming socially unacceptable for those who claim to be good citizens and aim to erase the footprints they leave on planet Earth. Concorde was a polluting monster in its time and it is evident that faster travel times envisaged by the new breed of aircraft on the drawing boards will sharply increase that danger.
It seems that technology will always find favour even when the overall outcome is unacceptable. There is no prospect of air travel diminishing and we appear to be on the cusp of a new era of supersonic travel.
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