24oct2003:
Bye bye Concorde. The great white dart makes its final flight
today.
It's a truly ridiculous machine. But like other acts of technological
folly - the pyramids, going to the moon, the Channel Tunnel - it's also utterly
awesome. Where I used to live, Concorde would pass high overhead regularly, and
the noise it made was just distinguishable enough from a 747 to bring me running
to the balcony.
And like so many grandiose schemes, it was a socialist project. With first
designs in the 1950s - only a decade after Britain lay near-bankrupt from the
war - it was an act of monumental economic stupidity, and the result was at the
very outer reaches of what was possible at the time.
There was no margin for error in Concorde. Every time it landed in New
York, there was little but vapour in its wings; the transatlantic flight was
do-able from London or Paris, but not from Frankfurt. Just 7% of its maximum
takeoff weight was available for the passengers; that's why it could only carry
a hundred of them. And even at its cruising altitude of 58,000 feet - walking
on the edge of space - its aluminium airframe was constantly on the point of
melting with the friction.
But within its envelope, it worked brilliantly. There's still no military
jet that can sustain Mach 2 for more than a few minutes - and even those capable
of reaching it need days or weeks of maintenance between sorties. The Concordes
took off from London, headed to the edge of space, landed in New York... then
turned around and did it again. Day in, day out, for nearly thirty years.
Engineering constraints weren't the reason it failed, however. It had
to do with the government's belief that air travel in the coming decades (this
was back in the 60s) would be much as it was then: a luxury option for the fabulously
rich. (Odd that socialists should think this, but then they never were the clearest
of thinkers.) And look at air travel today: RyanAir lets me hop to any European
capital for the price of a paperback. The analogy for air travel wasn't the luxury
ocean liner; it was the No. 7 bus.
And the luxury end of the market has changed, too. NetJets has a clue.
Instead of a single monolithic triumph of technology, it runs hundreds of smaller,
cheaper private jets from regional airports. Buying a fractional share of an
executive jet lets you travel when you want, where you want, and usually inserts
you into a smaller, hassle-free airport with a clear run by complimentary limo
into town. No check in, no schedules to be a slave to, and few demeaning customs
checks. Overall, the time from Heathrow to JFK probably won't rise at all. For
those with the cash.
To make Concorde break even, £900m of taxpayers' money had to be
written off. This is indicative of the reason socialism failed around the world.
Nothing to do with politics or dogma; socialism failed because socialists just
don't have a clue about economics. And money, in the end, is what lets the world
move forward... instead of stopping short at white elephants.
But still... what a machine. What a wonderful machine. Goodbye, Concorde.
