this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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Today I Learned

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Why didn't it succeed?

Concorde flights came to a screeching halt after only 27 years of operation on October 24, 2003. The reason? Excessive cost, high fares, and loud noise. On a regular flight, Concordes consumed 6,771 gallons of fuel, which quickly exceeded the profit made from the flight. In addition to that, only a total of 20 Concordes were built and no airline ordered them except for Air France and British Airways, who had to as they were state-run airlines at the time.

Oh, and a 2000 crash that killed everyone on board (109 people) and four people on the ground.

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British Airways used to sell these really nice double-sided leather bomber jackets at events that were imprinted with the British Airways logo on the black leather side and the Concorde sown into the quilted side. The reason I know this is because somebody found one in a thrift store and gave it to me as a gift, and I did a lot of digging to find out where it came from as they never sold them in stores or anything, only at events. The leather was worn thin and torn even when I got it like 20 years ago, but the Concorde looks just as good as it ever did:

[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago

The crash was caused by part of the engine cowl from the previous flight (continental DC10) falling off and remaining on the runway

wiki

Whilst taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport, Air France Flight 4590 ran over debris on the runway dropped by an aircraft during the preceding departure, causing a tyre to explode and disintegrate... five minutes before the Concorde departed, Continental Airlines Flight 55, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, took off from the same runway for Newark International Airport and lost a titanium alloy strip that was part of the engine cowl...Concorde ran over this piece of debris during its take-off...cutting the right-front tyre of its left main wheel bogie and sending a large chunk of tyre debris into the underside of the left wing... It did not directly puncture any of the fuel tanks, but it sent out a pressure shockwave that ruptured the number 5 fuel tank at its weakest point, just ahead of the left landing gear well.

[–] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 7 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

To expensive to operate, you needed a lot of fuel to flew few passengers faster, they decided regular airliners were fast enough.

[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 1 points 28 minutes ago

They needed 3x as much fuel as a 747 per passenger. The Concord was also banned from flying over cities because of the noise, this pretty much limited it to routes between east coast and Europe.

[–] tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

One of today's lucky 10000.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I also think it's the younger folks who may not know what older folks already knew. OP was maybe too young to remember about Concorde.

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

Probably, I still remember my physics teacher using the Concorde as part of a quiz.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

Too old, too expensive.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

early 2000s air crashes were so hot. everyone had one, some had two.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 155 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

No post on here has ever made me feel older. Just the thought that somebody might not know about Concorde because it's so far in the past makes me want to hide in a closet.

[–] suigenerix@lemmy.world 22 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

IKR. I was in a costume hire shop a few years ago and asked the shop lady (age late ~20s), "do you have a Zorro costume?" She asked me, "What's a Zorro?" Faaark I'm officially old!

True story. Antonio Banderas then ran into the store, yelled "Oi!" and stormed out.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Let's have a few brewskis on the porch and yell at kids to get off our lawn.

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[–] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 42 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

There are people having children right now who weren't born yet when Borat came out

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Borat came out 19 years ago. Sure, 19 year olds have kids, but not many of them do. By that logic you can also say that there are people who were born after 9/11 who have kids in school.

[–] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 1 points 31 minutes ago

Doesn't matter how many. We're old. Some things we experienced when we ourselves were already adults happened a generation ago..

[–] EtherWhack@lemmy.world 19 points 20 hours ago

Frak you, man... Frak you

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[–] MrSmith@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago

And dumbass musk and his followers said we'll use rockets for intercontinental flights.

[–] Lexam@lemmy.world 243 points 1 day ago (19 children)

Aw the Concord is a TIL now. They were really cool looking.

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 14 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

When flying supersonic the entire plane would expand and get longer to the point where flight engineer could put his hat between his console and bulkhead.

However, when it slowed down and cooled the engineer had to remember to get his hat or it would be stuck in the shrunken space.

The Concorde on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center had this happen, and it has a hat permanently stuck in the cockpit.

(At least according to the tour guide.)

[–] TassieTosser@aussie.zone 6 points 16 hours ago

Thought the story was that the whole crew did it on purpose on the last flight.

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[–] Skua@kbin.earth 99 points 1 day ago (7 children)

A fun fact about Concorde: there is one aerial photo of one of them flying at supersonic speeds, and the fighter jet that the photo was taken from could barely keep up long enough to take it. Here's the pic.

The image was taken by Adrian Meredith who was flying a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado jet during a rendezvous with the Concorde over the Irish Sea in April 1985. Although the Tornado could match Concorde’s cruising speed it could only do so for a matter of minutes due to the enormous rate of fuel consumption. Several attempts were made to take the photo, and eventually the Concorde had to slow down from Mach 2 to Mach 1.5-1.6 so that the Tornado crew could get the shot. The Tornado was stripped of everything to get it up to that speed as long as possible.

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-the-only-picture-of-concorde-flying-at-supersonic-speed/

[–] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Supersonic temperature giving it that extra sexy length

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[–] zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The channel Mustard on YouTube has some good videos on concord. I think reallifelore had some too

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

*Concorde - with an e :)

It was a bit of a political tiff at the time what the aircraft should be called.

Initially, the aircraft was named 'Concord' in the UK and 'Concorde' in France, but the UK government later adopted the French spelling, claiming the 'e' stood for ‘Excellence, England, Europe, and Entente Cordiale.’

Source

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 10 points 17 hours ago (9 children)

What killed the Concorde was economics. It simply wasn't worth while doing and then when one finally crashed that one time, the entire fleet was mothballed

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Nonsense, rich people constantly buy expensive things.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 1 points 32 minutes ago

They do but if you saw pictures of the inside you would see it was pretty tight. The super rich have their own jets and the regular rich prefer their pods.

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[–] chrisbtoo@lemmy.ca 48 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Thanks to Concorde, Phil Collins was able to play at both the London and Philadelphia Live Aid concerts. He Played in London, got a helicopter to Heathrow, Concorde to NY and then another helicopter to Philadelphia.

[–] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

As well as his own set at both venues, he also played the piano for Sting in London, then drums for Eric Clapton, and played with the reuniting surviving members of Led Zeppelin at JFK. On the Concorde flight, Collins encountered actress and singer Cher and told her about the concerts. Upon reaching the US, she attended the Philadelphia concert and can be seen performing as part of the concert's "We Are the World" finale.

Love Cher just chilling on Concorde, might go to a gig

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